Court in Mumbai junks Mehul Choksi's plea against notice to declare him fugitive economic offender

File pic

A special court in Mumbai on Friday rejected diamond merchant Mehul Choksi's petition against a notice issued to him on the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) application seeking to declare him a Fugitive Economic Offender in the multi-million dollar Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam, news agency PTI reported.

Special judge for cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), SM Menjoge, noted that the court order issuing the notice was not based on the "wrong facts or mistaken assumptions".

Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi are the prime accused in an alleged fraud at PNB that came to light in 2018, PTI reported.

The diamond merchant, in his plea filed through advocates Vijay Agarwal and Rahul Agarwal, claimed that the central probe agency kept changing its arguments regarding the evidence and grounds on the basis of which it wants him declared an FEO.

The lawyers cited multiple pleas and replies of the ED to show its 'contradictory' arguments, reported PTI.

In the application seeking to declare Choksi as an FEO, the agency claimed he left the country under suspicious circumstances in the first week of January 2018. But in a rejoinder filed later, ED claimed that he had anticipated that the fraud would be unearthed, and hence he tried to dispose of his properties before fleeing the country, Choksi's lawyers pointed out.

In a compliance report filed in September, as directed by the court, ED added that Choksi's application for a visa to Antigua and Barbuda was an act of planning to leave India and obtaining citizenship of the Caribbean country, Choksi's plea said.

Advocate Vijay Agarwal contended that Choksi left India for medical treatment, and the offence was registered a month following his exit from the country.

As his Indian passport was suspended by the passport authority, he could not return to India to participate in the investigation. The grounds mentioned in the ED application to declare him an FEO do not exist in the changed circumstances, hence the notice should be recalled, the lawyer argued.

The agency, represented by special public prosecutors Hiten Vennegaokar and Kavita Patil, contended that all the relevant documents were on record and there was no change in its stand.

Choksi has received the notice and can come back to India by obtaining travel documents from competent authorities, the agency further said, adding that he has also not challenged the order of suspension of his Indian passport to date.

The judge, after hearing both the sides, said that upon perusal of documents on record, he did not find any change in ED's stand.

Under the FEO Act, 2018, if any individual against whom a warrant has been issued in relation to an economic offence has left the country to avoid criminal prosecution, he or she can be declared an offender.

Choksi and Modi are wanted by ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for allegedly defrauding PNB worth Rs 13,400 crore in collusion with a few bank employees.

Modi has already been declared FEO by the court and is languishing at a jail in London since 2019.

(With PTI inputs)