New Delhi: According to the investigators accused of Rs. 13,000 crore bank fraud in the PNB scam, Mehul Choksi illegally held the passport of Antigua nation before his Indian passport was not even canceled, investigators have said.
That means, the fugitive businessman held two passports at a time and as per the law in India, dual citizenship is not allowed, Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday.
“If he still wants to come to India, he has a valid Antiguan passport and can travel on that,” an official said.
If he does not have any passport with him, the agency says, then he could still come back by means of emergency travel documents which will allow him to travel here.
Indian agencies are putting their efforts to get Mehul Choksi back to India from Antigua, a country which has accepted his citizenship application last year.
To extract loans overseas, Choksi and his nephew, Nirav Modi, both are accused of using fake guarantees in the name of Punjab National Bank. The Punjab National Bank is the second largest state-owned bank.
Mehul Choksi today used a camera for the first time from Antigua to claim “All allegations against me are false and baseless,” he said, while speaking to news agency ANI.
“The Enforcement Directorate has attached my properties illegally without being any basis of the seen,” he said while responding to questions asked on video by his lawyer in Antigua.
Mehul Choksi further said that there was “no question of surrendering his passport” as it had been already revoked “without explanation as to why I am a security threat”.
He reasoned that he was “immobilized” due to the fact that his passport had been revoked. “On February 16, I received an email from the passport office which said that my passport has been suspended due to reasons of security threat to India. On February 20, I sent an email to the regional passport office, Mumbai, requesting them to revoke the suspension of my passport. However, I did not receive any reply from the regional passport office,” he said.
Most recently, the Enforcement Directorate has sent a reminder to Interpol regarding its earlier application seeking a red corner notice for the fugitive.
Mehul Choksi, along with his nephew Nirav Modi, fled India in January this year before the scam came was revealed. He further acquired a passport from the Antigua government to stay there permanently.
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