A special court in Mumbai on Friday rejected diamond merchant Mehul Choksi’s challenge against the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) notice seeking to declare him a Fugitive Economic Offender (FEO) connected to the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case. Special PMLA Judge S M Menjoge upheld the notice, dismissing Choksi’s claims of procedural discrepancies by the ED.
Mehul Choksi, alongside his nephew Nirav Modi, is accused in a high-profile scandal that emerged in 2018 involving fraudulent transactions worth Rs 13,400 crore at PNB. Choksi argued through his legal counsel, Vijay Agarwal and Rahul Agarwal, that the ED’s positions were inconsistent, particularly about the timing of his departure from India and the disposal of assets.
In his defense, Choksi contended that he left India in January 2018 for medical reasons, before the registration of the offense in February, and could not return after his passport was suspended. However, the ED maintained that all pertinent details, including Choksi’s proactive measures to obtain citizenship in Antigua and Barbuda, were appropriately documented and argued.
Special public prosecutors Hiten Vennegaokar and Kavita Patil stood firm on the ED’s consistency in its approach towards Choksi’s case. The court, after a detailed review of the submissions, found no merit in Choksi’s claims of inconsistency or mistaken facts in the ED’s application.
