- Saturday, March 01, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Fugitive Indian-born businessman Mehul Choksi has clinched the first round of a court battle to prove that a group in the UK, including a younger woman, was part of an Indian intelligence service design to lure him to a villa in the Caribbean to be kidnapped and extradited to his home land.
According to The Guardian, the high court of Antigua and Barbuda has found that the 64-year-old Choksi has an “arguable” case pertaining to his civil claim against the country’s attorney general and police chief over the response to his alleged abduction and unlawful rendition to Dominica two years ago.
A submission made by Choksi’s lawyers mentions in details an alleged conspiracy in which he was allegedly subjected to “inhuman or degrading treatment” following his alleged kidnapping in Antigua. The detailed plot to steal the Mumbai-born businessman away was allegedly made in collusion with the Indian state, the report added.
The case could open up the world of secret service operations to the scanner and the alleged role played by individuals in the UK should it go to trial, The Guardian report added.
Choksi is seeking an admission from the Antiguan law-keepers that they failed to have a proper look into the alleged crime and a declaration that they will now restart a “speedy and effective” probe, the report said.
Antigua’s attorney general and police chief felt the claim was vexatious and frivolous, but the high court said the defendants had not shown the case to be “unsustainable”.
It also asked the defendants to file a defence and awarded the businessman 75 per cent of his costs.
