Fugitive Mehul Choksi, the infamous diamantaire on the run from the Indian authorities after being accused in the two billion dollars Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case has been seemingly using a mystery woman named Barbara Jarabica to evade deportation back to India.
According to a report by Sunday Guardian Live, after Choksi went missing from the Jolly Harbour area of Antigua and later emerged in Dominica’s capital city of Roseau at the Canefield beach where he was disposing of some documents at sea, the lawyers of Choksi claimed that he was kidnapped by an Indian agent named Barbara Jarabica, along with Gurdip Dev Bath, Gurjit Singh Bhandal and Gurmit Singh.
It is pertinent to note that the Indian government was speedily approaching the deportation of Choksi from Antigua. After hearing about the fate of his crime-in-partner Nirav Modi in the UK, an agitated Choksi started looking for plans.
The report states that upon hearing that his deportation was a few days away, Choksi hatched a plan with his lawyers about disappearing and later terming it as kidnapping. And when Choksi did emerge, his lawyers made sure that the images of fraudster being beaten blue were released in the media and shared worldwide to create sympathy.
Using the photos, on 7 June, “Justice Abroad”, a London-based legal help organization, on behalf of Choksi, submitted a complaint to British police against four residents of the United Kingdom including Barbara Jarabica, who had allegedly kidnapped the diamond merchant from Antigua.
Moreover, after speaking to couple of Indian channels, Barbara suddenly went underground, deleting her entire social media footprint – suggesting she was in on the plan from the beginning.
“He wants to prepare a legal ground that his life will be in danger if he is deported to India and that is why when he surfaced in Dominica, his lawyers ensured that pictures of his bruised and injured hands were distributed across the world, especially in the United Kingdom,” one of the Indian officials was quoted as saying by the publication.
After Choksi was arrested in Dominica, it was speculated that he will be extradited to India as New Delhi even sent a chartered plane. However, the hopes of repatriating the PNB Bank scam accused Choksi to India were soon dashed as Dominica said that they will send him back to Antigua, not India.
The Genesis
After the Punjab National Bank fraud and laundering case in 2017, the duo of Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi fled from India. While Nirav moved to the United Kingdom, his partner in crime Choksi holed up in the Caribbean Islands. The government of India had initiated the process of their extradition two years ago, in March 2019, when the UK Police arrested Nirav Modi and he was detained for almost two years.
In 2018, the Indian government tried to extradite Mehul Choksi under the principle of reciprocity and dual criminality but the process got tangled in the legal files. The extradition on dual criminality means that extradition is possible when it is an offence in the eyes of both requesting and requested countries.
Despite the sinister attempt of Choksi to flee to a country where India has no extradition treaty, the foreign policy of the Modi government has made his life difficult. Sensing that the noose was tightening around his neck and he could be extradited to India any day — Mehul orchestrated the entire chain of events. He might have managed to delay the inevitable, but the government is on his trail.