New Delhi: Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on the Centre after the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) dropped fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi's name from its Red Notice list.
"ED-CBI for the opposition leaders but Modiji's Mehulbhai got relief from Interpol. If he can paralyse the Parliament for his dear pal, how can he refuse help to an old friend whom he helped flee the country five years ago", he said.
Mehul Choksi is accused of committing an Rs 11,356.84 crore loan fraud case with the Punjab National Bank (PNB) and was delisted by Interpol from its 'red' notice list.
According to sources in the intelligence, Choksi had moved a plea seeking to scrap the RCN (Red Corner Notice) issued by Interpol in December 2018, citing “human rights violations” but the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had contested it.
An RCN is a request issued by Interpol to locate and provisionally arrest an individual awaiting extradition. It is issued by the General Secretariat of the global police body at the request of a member country or an international tribunal based on a valid national arrest warrant.
The Interpol, however, earlier this year, took a decision to remove Choksi’s name.
An affidavit that Choksi filed in a court in Antigua and Barbuda claiming that he was “abducted and tortured by agents of the Indian government in May 2021” and taken to Dominica, a Carribean island, against his will, has a role to play in the decision, reports Theprint.
With the RCN now revoked, Choksi can travel to any other country at will.
The move comes as a setback to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) which were waiting for his deportation.
However, officials probing the matter said that it will not affect Choksi's extradition from Antigua.
Choksi allegedly made the PNB issue 143 Letters of Undertaking (LOUs) and 225 Foreign Letters of Credit amounting to more than Rs 5,000 crore to three of his companies. These, in effect, make Choksi a bigger defaulter than Nirav Modi.
He is currently in the Caribbean Island nation and Indian authorities have asked Antiguan authorities to extradite him so that he could be prosecuted.