Extradition saga: no reprieve for Mehul Choksi from Belgian court

way2barak, October 23: A Belgian court has ruled that Mehul Choksi, main accused in a Rs 13,000 crore PNB scam, faces “no risk” of being denied a fair trial or subjected to ill-treatment if he is extradited to India.

A four-member indictment chamber at the Court of Appeals in Antwerp has found no infirmity in the orders issued by the pre-trial chamber of the Antwerp district court on November 29, 2024, which had termed the arrest warrants issued by a Mumbai special Court in May 2018 and June 2021 as “enforceable”, allowing Choksi’s extradition. Dismissing the appeal filed by Choksi against the district court, the Court of Appeals held that the 66-year-old businessman, wanted in connection with the Punjab National Bank scam, failed to provide “concretely plausible” evidence of a “genuine risk” of torture or denial of justice.