Mehul Choksi, a fugitive Indian jeweler implicated in a major bank fraud case in India, has been apprehended in Belgium, according to his attorney on Monday. Choksi, along with his nephew Nirav Modi, is accused of orchestrating a $1.8 billion scam involving Punjab National Bank, the country’s second-largest public financial institution. Both individuals absconded from India in 2018. The arrest in Belgium was carried out in response to an extradition petition from Indian authorities, as reported by local media outlets. Choksi was detained on Saturday in Antwerp, a prominent diamond trading center globally. His legal representative, Vijay Aggarwal, stated that they intend to appeal for his release on the grounds that he is not a flight risk, is dealing with a serious illness, and is receiving cancer treatment. Furthermore, they plan to argue that Choksi’s case has political undertones and will assert that Indian prisons provide substandard living conditions. Modi, who established a jewelry empire spanning from India to New York and Hong Kong, was arrested in the United Kingdom in 2019 and has been incarcerated since then.
