Antigua’s Commissioner of Police, Atlee Rodney, has “categorically” denied claims of any misconduct on the part of a senior police officer surrounding the ongoing investigations involving Mehul Choksi, who is wanted in India on fraud-related charges.
In July 2021, a High Court judge in Dominica granted the India-born Antigua and Barbuda citizen, EC$10,000 (one EC dollar=US$0.37 cents) bail to allow him to travel to St. John’s for medical treatment.
Choksi, 64, had pleaded not guilty to the charge of illegally entering Dominica in late May 2021 claiming he had been kidnapped in Antigua and taken to Roseau on May 23.
Choksi is wanted by the Indian judicial authorities for criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, cheating and dishonesty, including delivery of property, corruption, and money laundering.
The statement by the commissioner of police denying the claims of misconduct in the investigations follows the publication of an article in the Economist Times of India on January 13, written by an internet blogger, Kenneth Rijock, in which certain allegations against a senior member of the police force and a magistrate had been made.
“It is most unfortunate that Mr. Kenneth Rijock, on his Internet blog, made several false statements, concerning the Antigua and Barbuda Police Force in relation to Mr. Mehul Choksi without ascertaining the facts,” said Rodney.
“The entire blog is false with inadequate or no research of the facts and has a malicious purpose and ought not to have been posted.”
The police commissioner explained that upon the issuing of a Red Notice by INTERPOL, stating that Choksi is wanted by the law enforcement authorities in India, and a request to the attorney general for his extradition, an extradition order was issued in accordance with a Commonwealth Treaty, governing extradition of wanted persons.
Subsequently, Choksi challenged his extradition in the courts, and he has delayed extradition by that process.
Rodney said Antigua and Barbuda is a democratic nation in which the rule of law prevails under the Constitution of the country.
“Choksi has the right to seek a hearing by the court, and only the court can order his extradition by judicial process. His matter is still before the courts, because of his legal interventions”.
In the article, Rijock states that the senior police officer, whom he named and Choksi, “have been meeting” at a restaurant, “alleging bribery.”
But the police commissioner’s statement noted that “only two engagements have been held between” Choksi and the senior police officer and that “both engagements occurred around August 2021 and June 2022 during an investigation, where Mr. Choksi alleged he was kidnapped from Antigua and transported against his will to Dominica.
Meanwhile, the lawyers representing Choksi, have written to the Registrar of the High Court, Mrs. Cecile Hill, distancing their client from the allegations made by Rijock in his newspaper article.
CMC/
