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After fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi’s arrest in Belgium, his lawyer Vijay Aggarwal said that they will be filing an appeal to release Choksi from custody, citing his ill health and ongoing cancer treatment.
Choksi was arrested in Belgium on Saturday, April 12, 2025, after local authorities confirmed his presence in the country.
Sources said that preparations were being made for his extradition to India. However, Choksi has started preparing for a legal battle, with lawyers looking to secure bail.
“My client Mehul Choksi has been arrested in Belgium, and at the moment, he is in custody. We will be starting the process of filing an appeal against this, and then, as a process of appeal, we will be requesting that he be pulled out of prison,” Vijay Aggarwal told ANI in Delhi.
“The major ground for the plea is his ill health and that he is undergoing cancer treatment, and, of course, he is not a flight risk at all,” Choksi’s lawyer added.
The legal team states that Choksi has strong reasons to challenge the extradition request, citing his health condition, among other arguments.
“There is no push. It is a process. Non-bailable warrants have been issued against him since 2018. It is a prerequisite for extradition that there has to be an open-ended, non-bailable warrant,” Aggarwal added.
“Earlier, they tried to pick him up from Dominica, where they failed. So then, by the Dominican court order, my client was getting his treatment in Antigua.”
“For his medical treatment, he had to go to Belgium, and he has been there getting his treatment for the cancer.”
“Arrest is a process,” Aggarwasl stated. “Whenever for any country, there is an extradition request made by another country wherein they have a treaty.
“First of all, the person has to be arrested, then the person has to show that he’s got community ties, and then we have to show that he is not a flight risk and that there is a medical condition. So that’s the only ground,” Aggarwal stated.
Earlier, It was reported by PTI that absconding diamantaire Mehul Choksi has been arrested in Belgium following an extradition request by Indian probe agencies for his involvement in the Rs 13,000 crore PNB bank loan “fraud” case, official sources.
The action against the second “prime suspect” in this case, after Choksi’s nephew diamantaire Nirav Modi, was taken on Saturday based on an extradition request moved by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Choksi was located in Belgium last year when he went there on the grounds of getting medical treatment. He had been staying in Antigua since 2018 after leaving India.
Sources said the Interpol Red Notice against him for arrest was “deleted” sometime back and the Indian agencies were pursuing him via the extradition route since then.
