Fugitive businessman Mehul Choski was arrested in Belgium on Monday, Enforcement Directorate (ED) sources told news agency ANI. He is one of the accused in the 2 billion dollar Punjab National Bank (PNB) Scam. His arrest was made based on two non-bailable warrants issued by the Mumbai court, dated May 23, 2018, and June 15, 2021, as per media reports. In 2018, Mehul Choksi, along with his nephew Nirav Modi, their family employees, and several bank officials, were charged by ED and CBI in connection with the fraud at PNB’s Brady House branch in Mumbai.
Timeline Of Mehul Choksi That Led To His Arrest
January 2018: The fraud of Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi was revealed in the first week of February 2018 when Punjab National Bank informed SEBI and the Bombay Stock Exchange about a fraud of Rs 11,356 crore. The 65-year-old diamond merchant, who fled India on January 2, 2018, is sought by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate for allegedly swindling Rs 13,850 crore from Punjab National Bank. Later, PNB also informed the CBI about a new fraud of Rs 1,300 crore. Investigation revealed that Deputy Manager Gokul Nath Shetty working in the forex department of the bank, along with another bank officer named Manoj Kharat, gave a fake Letter Of Undertaking (LOU) to the companies of Nirav Modi and Mehul Chowksi. To hide the information from the bank, the CBS system which is the Core Banking System was bypassed and entries were not even made for the bank.
When another officer came to the bank’s forex branch in place of Gokulnath Shetty, Nirav Modi, and Mehul Chowksi’s men approached him to issue the LoU, the bank officers asked for a 100% cash margin before issuing the letter of undertaking. All three firms gave the excuse that they had already availed this facility from the bank, so why are they being asked for margin cash now?
Earlier, Nirav Modi had not only won the trust of the bank officer by returning the money on time but also used to give him a huge amount as a bribe.
How They Fooled The Bank-
Nirav Modi and his men had roped in two employees of Punjab National Bank for transactions. He used the ‘SWIFT’ transaction system to transfer money. Through this, they fooled the core banking system that processes daily banking transactions.
Then the people of Nirav Modi’s company used these fake LoUs as a basis and took loans in dollars from banks like Axis and Allahabad. Then these were sent to some firms abroad through funding from nostro accounts, which were linked to Nirav Modi.
2017: Mehul Choksi left India in 2018, first traveling to the United States and later establishing residence in Antigua. He had obtained Antiguan citizenship a year earlier, in 2017.
May 2019: Mehul’s nephew, Nirav Modi, was arrested in London in May 2019.
March 2023: The red notice that Interpol had issued against Mehul Choksi was officially terminated in March 2023.
2024: According to reported information in 2024, Choksi together with his wife moved from Antigua to Belgium. Anti-Quan media sources indicate that Mehul and Preeti Choksi plan to establish their future residence in Geneva. An attorney representing Choksi told Mumbai’s special court this year that his client resides in Antwerp Belgium for medical care of his blood cancer.
2025: Mehul Choski was arrested in Belgium. Choksi is presently in detention, and efforts are being made to extradite him to India to face trial in the multi-crore banking fraud case.
