India had given no adverse info on Choksi: Antigua
New Delhi: Antigua has claimed it was told by Indian agencies that there was no adverse information against Mehul Choksi when it did a background check on the fugitive billionaire before granting him citizenship in 2017, a local media report in the Caribbean nation has said.
While the Antiguan authority responsible for grant of investment-linked citizenship named the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) as one of the Indian agencies to have given such a clearance in case of Choksi, 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.
Choksi's application for citizenship in Antigua in May 2017 was accompanied with clearance from the local police as required by norms, Antiguan newspaper the Daily Observer reported, citing a statement from the Citizenship by Investment Unit of Antigua and Barbuda (CIU).
Choksi is one of the alleged masterminds of the USD 2 billion scam in state-run Punjab National Bank and uncle of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi.
The authorities in the island country did a thorough check on Choksi from open source global agencies, including the Interpol, that there was "no instance" of any derogatory information against him, it added.
The Antiguan authorities, as part of their own checks, found two instances of Sebi action against Choksi's firms in 2014 and 2017 and sought more information on them, the report further said.
It further quoted CIU as claiming that Sebi had told authorities in Antigua that one case was "satisfactorily closed" and there was "insufficient evidence" to pursue the second matter.
The Congress on Friday alleged that "shocking details" emerging from Antigua have "exposed the complicity and connivance" of the Modi government in the escape of fugitive billionaire Mehul Choksi to the Caribbean country.
The CBI has sent an extradition request for fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi to the government to be forwarded to Antigua , an agency official said on Friday.
