In an attempt to avoid extradition to India, fugitive jeweller Mehul Choksi has given up his Indian citizenship and surrendered his passport to Antigua. He is currently wanted by multiple agencies for loan fraud.

Mehul Choksi was granted citizenship of Antigua and Barbuda in 2018 and he took the oath of allegiance to that country on January 15 last year. Nearly two weeks later, on January 29, the CBI filed a case and started investigating him and his nephew Nirav Modi. Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi are accused of a Rs. 13,000 crore fraud involving fake guarantees in the name of state-run Punjab National Bank to secure loans abroad. They both skipped the country a year ago. Choksi left the country for medical treatment in the US.

India and Antigua do not have a bilateral extradition pact but the government has been trying to bring back the diamond billionaire from Antigua under a law of the island nation that allows it to send back a fugitive to a designated Commonwealth country.

Tidbits:

• Antigua also known as Waladli or Wadadli by the native population, is an island in the West Indies.
• Antigua and Barbuda joined the West Indies Federation in 1958.. Antigua and Barbuda became an independent state within the Commonwealth of Nations on 1 November 1981.
• St. John’s is the capital and largest city of Antigua and Barbuda.