Mystery shrouds the unknown woman seen with fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi when he was nabbed in Dominica after he went missing from Antigua on May 23.
While Antiguan Prime Minister Gaston Browne has dubbed the mystery woman to be Choksi’s girlfriend, some reports quoted sources reportedly close to Choksi as refuting the claims of the premier of the island nation.
The woman seen with Choksi was reportedly part of the team involved in his alleged “abduction, torture and arrest”.
The reports further quoted the sources as asserting that the said woman was staying in Antigua and she started meeting Choksi during morning and evening walks. After befriending Choksi, she called him to an apartment to meet her on May 23, the day the Indian businessman went missing from Antigua.
When Choksi reached there, a group of people allegedly abducted him and took him to Dominica where he was arrested, the reports claimed.
Browne has yet again on Sunday asserted that Choksi can directly be deported from Dominica to India as his citizenship in Antigua is contested. Choksi is wanted in the Rs 13,500 crore PNB credit fraud scam and is also contesting an extradition plea by India in Antigua.
Late on Sunday (India time), Browne told Antigua News Room, “The information that we are getting is that Mehul Choksi may have taken his girlfriend to Dominica probably to have dinner or have a good time and so on and got caught. That would have been a monumental error because in Antigua he is a citizen, we could not deport him....”
“The problem is if he is sent back to Antigua because he is an Antiguan citizen, even though his citizenship is unsettled, he still enjoys constitutional and legal protections. We have no doubt that his citizenship will ultimately be revoked because he did not disclose material information,” Browne said.