ED names Choksi's wife as beneficiary of scam, files additional complaint

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a supplementary Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) complaint against fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi and others in the Punjab National Bank scam case.

The ED has named Preeti Choksi, wife of Mehul Choksi, as a beneficiary of the scam and has claimed that she is also an absconder and is in hiding with her husband since 2017.

On May 21, the Commonwealth of Dominica withdrew/discontinued the legal proceedings in the illegal entry case against Choksi.

Director of Public Prosecutions (AG) in a reply filed on May 17, 2022, to Magistrate Court, informed that 'Mehul Chinubhai Choksi' was charged, for that he, on the 24th day of May 2021 at Toucarie Bay, Toucarie in the Parish of St John, in the Commonwealth of Dominica, did enter illegally into the Commonwealth of Dominica at a place to wit 'Toucarie Bay, Toucarie' not approved as a point of entry."

The reply of the Director of Prosecutions further stated that "in accordance with the provisions of Section 72(2) (c) of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Dominica, I do hereby discontinue the above-mentioned proceedings against the said, Mehul Chinubhai Choksi."

Fugitive Businessman Mehul Choksi who had gone missing from Antigua on May 23, 2021, was soon caught in Dominica. He was charged with illegal entry by the police in Dominica.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on May 2 has registered a fresh case against Mehul Choksi and his company Gitanjali Gems for allegedly defrauding the Industrial Finance Corporation of India (IFCI).

A senior CBI officer said that after the preliminary inquiry, into the complaint received against Mehul Choksi and his company Gitanjali Gems from the Assistant General Manager (AGM) of IFCI, an FIR under IPC section 420 (cheating), 468 ( Forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (Whoever fraudulently or dishonestly uses as genuine) has been registered in Mumbai.

To this, Choksi's Advocate Vijay Aggarwal had said that the CBI's fresh case will not stand in court.