MISSION CHOKSI
How did a man wanted for India’s biggest bank scam land up on a distant Caribbean island nation—bruised, black-eyed and bearing an incredulous tale of being a target of an alleged rendition? Since he fled India in 2018 after being wanted for defrauding the Punjab National Bank (PNB), the Mehul Choksi saga has taken some astonishing twists. None as sensational it would seem as the events of the past few days. Choksi, 62, alleged he was honey trapped by a woman he had met on the island of Antigua, where he had been in hiding since he fled India. He was allegedly tased, beaten up, tortured by unidentified people of Indian origin and spirited away on a yacht to Dominica, another island nation.
The diamond merchant, who was once the envy of the South Mumbai trade and carved up a multibillion dollar global diamond empire, has his back to the wall. He is simultaneously battling the law of three countries—India, where the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) want him back to stand trial for bank fraud; Antigua, which recently stripped him of
