Indian fugitive Mehul Choksi again attempts to delay extradition with new case in UK

Mehul Choksi, the Indian fugitive who is wanted in the whopping USD 2 billion Punjab National Bank fraud case, has made another attempt to delay his extradition to India. He has now filed a case in a UK court against the Indian Government, accusing authorities of orchestrating his kidnapping in 2021. 

This case follows Choksi's arrest in Belgium in April this year and is seen as another attempt to delay his extradition to India. 

Legal Experts call it ‘weak attempt’ 

A UK based legal consultant, while commenting on this matter, said, “Anyone can sue anybody in the UK courts. If you spend £10,000, you can sue the Prime Minister. But that doesn’t mean the other person is guilty or has committed a crime.” 

He further said that the case filed by Choksi has not yet officially started and it still has to be decided whether there is enough evidence to even begin the proceedings. 

India Questions UK Jurisdiction 

Following these baseless allegations, India’s lawyer Harish Salve said that there is no evidence of India having anything to do with the alleged events. Moreover, the Indian government has also objected to the UK court for having jurisdiction in this matter based on ‘state immunity’.  

Notably, this is not the first time that Choksi is trying to delay his extradition, but he has been using loopholes for years now to avoid facing justice in India and this latest move is also being seen as just another tactic by him to buy more time and delay his extradition. 

India’s Biggest Banking Scam Uncovered in 2018 

The largest financial fraud in India’s history by Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi came to light in February 2018 when the bank informed the stock exchange BSE that it had detected unauthorized and fraudulent transactions of whopping Rs 11,380 crore at a branch located in India’s South Mumbai. 

However, months before the fraud came to light, Choksi had already fled to Antigua and Barbuda.  

In May 2021, Mehul Choksi allegedly planned to escape from Jolly Harbour in Antigua to Cuba, a country without an extradition treaty with India, with the help of two Jamaican nationals. However, due to threats in Cuba, the plan was changed mid-way and Choksi's route was diverted to Dominica, where he was subsequently charged with illegal entry. 

Since then, Choksi has claimed that he was kidnapped from Antigua and Barbuda in a bid to fabricate a narrative to delay his extradition to India and avoid facing justice in the massive PNM scam.  

Not only this, but authorities in Antigua and Barbuda, including Prime Minister Gaston Browne, have stated that there's not enough evidence to support Choksi’s kidnapping claim. 

This is not Choksi's first attempt to delay extradition and he has previously lied on his visa application for Belgium and tried to settle there with an F1 residency in 2025, but he was arrested by authorities. 

Despite these attempts by Mehul Choksi, experts argue that his extradition is still likely to go through as the scale of the fraud he is accused of in India is huge. Legal experts further say that such cases cannot be delayed forever with baseless arguments.