India looking at bringing back Choksi under Antiguan law applicable to Commonwealth countries
Dominica high court on Thursday adjourned the hearing on a habeas corpus petition filed on behalf of diamond trader Mehul Choksi, local media reported. Judge Bernie Stephenson will decide the next date of hearing after meeting both sides, Antigua News Room said. The adjournment is to allow lawyers for Choksi and the Dominica government "to agree on the language to be used with respect to the injunction filed to prevent his removal from Dominica", the media outlet reported.
A Dominica Magistrate Court has adjourned till June 25 the hearing into alleged illegal entry of fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi into the Caribbean island nation, local media there reported. On Monday, the Magistrate Court was to start hearing the case of Choksi's "illegal entry" into the country on May 23 but he was a "no show", a media website Natureislenews reported. His legal team submitted a medical certificate from the doctors of Dominica China Friendship Hospital, where Choksi is being held, of "mental stress" and elevated blood pressure.
The two diamond traders, who are said to have left the country before criminal cases were registered, had failed to appear before the ED, promoting the agency to move the PMLA court for issuance of NBWs against them.
The PMLA court in Mumbai has sought their appearance on September 25 (Nirav Modi) and 26 (Mehul Choksi) respectively under the fugitive economic offender law.
Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne has asked neighbouring Dominica, where fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi was caught, to hand the diamantaire over to India directly, local media reported.
Any industrial policy is only as good as how it is applied and the other reforms that support it. This was as true 40 years ago as it is now, points out Debashis Basu.
Gitanjali Gems and Firestar Diamonds together account for 5.8 per cent of the diamond and jewellery trade in India.
The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday said it has attached fresh assets worth Rs 29.75 crore of fugitive diamond trader Nirav Modi under the anti-money laundering law. A provisional order has been issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to attach these assets that are in the form of bank deposits, land, and buildings, it said in a statement.
Arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari has opposed the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) plea in a Delhi court seeking to declare him a "fugitive " in connection with a black money case. Bhandari claims his stay in the UK is legal as the London High Court denied his extradition to India. The court's decision was also cited by an English court in April to deny the Indian government's request to extradite another accused in a rice-buying scam. Bhandari's lawyer argued that the ED's application was "vague, misplaced and without jurisdiction " and that the value involved in the case was less than the required Rs 100 crore to declare someone a "fugitive. " The Delhi court has sought the ED's rebuttal to Bhandari's argument by May 3.
Fugitive Diamantaire Mehul Choksi who is held in Dominica after his mysterious disappearance from Antigua and Barbuda has alleged that his "friend" Barbara Jabarica was instrumental in his abduction which involved musclemen claiming to be Antiguan Police and mercenaries looking like Indians. The police have started the investigation after receiving a complaint from Choksi, Antigua Prime Minister Gaston Browne said.
However, the Indian capital markets regulator rejected the claim saying it neither received any such request, nor provided any such information to the concerned department in Antigua.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has rebutted Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Randeep Singh Surjewala's allegations regarding "wilful defaulters, bad loans and write-offs", and stated that they have "attempted to mislead people in a brazen manner".
Modi stirred a debate recently by criticising some political parties for offering "muft ki revdi" for electoral gains.
The ED on Monday also examined the state-owned bank's executive director K V Brahmaji Rao to understand how the alleged fraud was detected and other banking procedures.
They said the global arrest warrant against the Belgian national Nehal, 40, has been issued on charges of alleged money laundering that is being probed by the Enforcement Directorate.
Frozen mutual funds and shares worth Rs 86.72 crore belong to Choksi and his group, and the rest are owned by the Modi group.
Companies owned by fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi have allegedly siphoned off over Rs 6,344.96 crore from the Punjab National Bank (PNB) using fraudulent letters of undertaking and foreign letters of credit, a CBI investigation into the scam has detected. The findings were submitted by the CBI in a supplementary chargesheet filed before a special court in Mumbai last week, where the agency said the PNB was conned by its employees who were allegedly hand in gloves with Choksi and his company executives and who facilitated the scam as part of a criminal conspiracy. The PNB officials at the bank's Brady House branch in Mumbai issued 165 letters of undertaking (LoUs) and 58 foreign letters of credit (FLCs) during March-April 2017, against which 311 bills were discounted.
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Trading activities of 26 entities, including Gitanjali Gems promoter Mehul Choksi and firms linked to Prime Broking, were suspended on Thursday by market regulator Sebi and the bourses, as part of a probe into suspected market manipulations.
PNB issued a formal appointment letter to Belgium-based consultancy firm BDO
Both Purvi Deepak Modi and Neeshal Modi are accused in the $2-billion scam allegedly orchestrated by their elder brother Nirav Modi and uncle Mehul Choksi in Punjab National Bank, they said.
Nirav Modi, along with his wife Ami Modi, a US citizen, brother Nishal Modi, a Belgian citizen, and uncle Mehul Choksi, all accused in the CBI's FIRs in the case, left the country in the first week of January, weeks before country's biggest banking scam surfaced.
CBI Jt. Director, A K Sharma, weakened Mallya's "Look Out" notice, says Rahul.
Despite Nirav Modi win, in the last five years, India managed to bring only about 20 fugitive offenders.
Once a stock market darling, the jewellery chain heads for liquidation.
The Congress that had announced a list of 218 candidates in one go for the 224 member Karnataka legislative assembly on April 15, had kept the names of candidates for six seats on hold.
It has also attached fresh 66 banks accounts, holding deposits of Rs 80.07 crore, of the Gitanjali group, owned by Modi's uncle Mehul Choksi.
India's jewellery retailer Gitanjali Group is planning to invest up to $75 million (around Rs 414 crore) in increasing its number of outlets in the UAE to 110 within two years.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday quashed the defamation complaint against Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav over his alleged 'only Gujaratis can be thugs' remark after he agreed to withdraw the statement.
The bank also issued 234 LoUs worth Rs 1,880 crore to another group of companies promoted by Mehul Choksi in 2015 and 2016
The plea also sought a directive for the constitution of a committee of experts who would find the details of bad debt cases in the country.
The slowdown in the world's largest jewellery market could provide an opportunity for acquisitions. Following the acquisitions of two jewellery chains in the US, Samuel Jewels in December 2006 and Rogers in November 2007, Gitanjali Gems is eyeing a few more buyouts in the world's largest jewellery market.
The agency on Friday also carried out searches on the premises of the Gitanjali Group at 20 places in Mumbai, Pune, Surat, Jaipur, Hyderabad and Coimbatore.
Currently, the enforcement officers are making seizures of assets directly and indirectly connected to offenders, including jewelers Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi in the Punjab National Bank fraud and Vijay Mallya in the Rs 9,000-crore IDBI loan case.
Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi's meeting with British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in London triggered a row back home with the Bharatiya Janata Party asking him whether he endorsed the UK opposition leader's "anti-India" views.
Actors Saif Ali Khan, Lara Dutta and Darsheel Safary have been named amongst the recipients of this year's Rajiv Gandhi Awards for their contribution to Hindi Cinema. The awards will be presented on August 17 in Mumbai.
Diamond prices fell about 30 per cent last year and had recovered by almost 15 per cent this year. Further recovery is imminent by the end of this year, said Mehul Choksi, chairman of Gitanjali Gems, a leading jewellery manufacturer and retailer, on the sidelines of a seminar organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Mumbai on Monday.
A special court here on Friday allowed 'restoration' of properties worth Rs 500 crore of fugitive jeweler Nirav Modi 's firms to Punjab National Bank (PNB). This is the third such order in a span of about two weeks, with the total value of properties owned by Nirav Modi's companies being restored in this manner now standing at approximately Rs 1,000 crore.
The lawyer also claimed "there is no evidence to prove any of the charges levelled against my client."
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