Fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi has formally launched an appeal at Belgium’s Supreme Court – the Court of Cassation – against a recent ruling that deemed India’s extradition request “enforceable”, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported.
Public prosecutor at the Court of Appeal in Antwerp, Ken Witpas, said Choksi filed an appeal with the Court of Cassation on October 30, according to a PTI report.
The appeal was filed following the decision of the Court of Appeal in Antwerp on 17 October.
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“This appeal is strictly limited to the merits and will be reviewed by the Court of Cassation. During these proceedings, enforcement of the extradition is suspended,” said Ken Witpas.
Issuance process
The appeals panel of the Court of Appeal upheld the findings of the pre-trial panel of the district court, ruling that the arrest warrants, originally issued by a special court in Mumbai in May 2018 and June 2021, were indeed “executable”.
Crucially, the Court of Appeal in Antwerp decided that Choksi, who is the main accused in ₹13,000 crore PNB scam, faces “no risk” of being ill-treated or denied a fair trial if returned to India. In its charge sheet, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said only Choksi had vacuumed ₹6,400 crore of the total fraud amount.
The process in Belgium began after India sent an extradition request on 27 August 2024. The public prosecutor at the court of first instance in Antwerp, Division Turnhout, started on 25 November 2024 steps to enforce the arrest warrants of the court in Bombay.
While the investigative panel initially declared the arrest warrants enforceable, it made a single exception that excluded charges related to “causing evidence of a crime to disappear.”
Choksi, who fled India to Antigua and Barbuda in January 2018 just before the scandal was revealed, was subsequently in Belgium, reportedly seeking medical treatment.
India has given several assurances to the Belgian authorities regarding Choksi’s safety, the specific charges he will face during the trial, prison arrangements, respect for human rights and provision of his medical needs.
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The Nirav Modi case
Meanwhile, the case of Choksi’s nephew Nirav Modi is scheduled to begin in London this month.
Modi had earlier said there would be a “sensational development” when his Indian extradition case involving fraud and money laundering charges is reopened.
“They (Bank of India) are referring to my extradition… I am still here. There will be some sensational development and I have never used these words before,” Nirav said during a pre-trial hearing in October, according to a PTI report.
Modi has previously spoken about vision problems and long delays in accessing a computer behind bars, which he stressed make any trial unfair and unbalanced.
“I understand that this is an adversarial process and they (Bank of India) can say anything against me. But they continue to make assumptions; I would say spend a day in jail… you need to have some basic common sense,” he told the court, according to a PTI report.
Modi is wanted in India in an estimated $2 billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) loan fraud case.
