Pictures of Mehul Choksi from Dominica police custody, appears with swollen eye, bruised arm
The photos, released by Chowksi’s lawyer to the media, show him behind bars, his eye swollen and arm severely bruised.
FollowNew Delhi: Fugitive jeweller Mehul Choksi was seen in the custody of the police in Dominica in a photo obtained by local media on Saturday shortly after a court in the Caribbean island nation extended till Wednesday its order restraining his deportation.
The photos, released by Chowksi’s lawyer to the media, show him behind bars, his eye swollen and arm severely bruised.
The images have surfaced two days after the fugitive diamantaire’s lawyer claimed that he was “forcefully picked up by various people" from Antigua’s Jolly Harbour and taken to Dominica, where he may have been “tortured". His lawyer Vijay Aggarwal had said the 62-year-old businessman has wounds on his body.
Choksi faces multiple charges of embezzling funds from the state-owned Punjab National Bank in India; the fraud is worth some Rs 13,500-crore. He had acquired citizenship of Antigua under its Citizenship by Investment Programme (CIP) in November 2017, weeks before investigations by the Central Bureau of Investigation started.
Choksi’s legal team promptly filed a habeas corpus plea in the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court that has barred authorities from removing him from the country until further orders. The court will take up the case on June 2. Choksi was released from police custody on Friday following the court order and has been moved to a quarantine facility.
Choksi, who was born in India, was captured in Dominica earlier this week after going missing from the Caribbean nation of Antigua on Sunday, triggering a global manhunt. Sources said Mehul Choksi had reached Dominica -- a tiny island nation in the Caribbean -- by boat.
He had been living in Antigua, where he had secured a passport, after fleeing India before the fraud came to light. He is one of the main defendants in the case.
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