Choksi challenges red corner request

Local attorney-at-law, Dr. David Dorsett, counsel for accused fraudster, Mehul Choksi, has said that his client has challenged a request for a Red-corner notice to Interpol by the Indian government.
“Mr Choksi has … submitted to the Interpol reasons why a Red-corner notice should not be issued because among other things, jail conditions in India are below international human rights standards and if he returns to India, he would be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment,” Dorsett said in an exclusive interview yesterday with OBSERVER media.
Dorsett said that he can confirm that Choksi has made those submissions to Interpol and he is waiting to see the decision of Interpol on the Indian government’s request for the Red-corner notice. He said that as far as he is aware, Interpol has not issued a Red-corner notice against Choksi.
The attorney-at-law further stated that Choksi’s submissions to Interpol were made on August 17 and now Interpol is looking closely at the submission made by the Indian government and those made by Choksi’s legal team to determine whether the Red-corner notice will be granted.
He said that Choksi’s strategy is to attack the legitimacy of the request by the Indian government. He added that Choski’s team is arguing very strongly that the case that the Indian government has against his client does not meet the standard for a Red-corner notice to be issued.
Dorsett also said that there is no set timeframe for Interpol to get back to him regarding its decision.
The Indian government has been trying to get Choksi extradited to India to answer charges for his alleged crimes in the case known in India as the Punjab National Bank Fraud Case.
A `Red-corner notice‘ is an arrest warrant circulated by Interpol on behalf of the government of a particular country. It is a request from one country to another to arrest and deport the wanted individual. It replaces the once widely used ‘wanted’ posters.
Choksi, an Indian billionaire businessman, wanted for alleged fraud in India, was granted Antiguan and Barbudan citizenship in November 2017. The diamond tycoon is the owner of the Gitanjali Group, a retail jewellery company with 4,000 stores in India.