An interpol red corner notice has been issued against Mehul Choksi, Choksi is involved in bank fraud cases with Punjab National Bank. The red corner notice, asks foreign nations to arrest wanted persons.
This is a huge setback for Mehul Choksi who became the citizen of the Caribbean country Antigua and Barbuda before the multi-crore fraud became public. The international warrant would make the Government of Antigua and Barbuda rethink citizenship given to Mehul Choksi. Mehul Choksi was given citizenship in the island nation after he invested heavily, he owned 4000 jewellery stores in India.
Mehul Choksi's nephew Nirav Modi is a diamond merchant who opened 17 showrooms across India. Modi is also under the radar of the Interpol. Modi is believed to be living in Hong Kong, China or London, United Kingdom.
The duo committed bank fraud worth US$ 2.1 billion (₹14,356.84 crore) by obtaining letter of undertakings (LOU's) to overseas creditors. The fraudulent LOU's drained wealth of the Punjab National Bank (PNB), internal officers working in the bank helped them a mask huge amounts of wealth. The PNB CEO and board members were included in the chargesheet of the CBI, as they failed to follow the guidelines of the Reserve Bank of India.
The Government of India have passed new reforms to confiscate assets of a economic offenders and absconding loan defaulters. The RBI scrapped the letter of credit (LOU) policy.
The Indian agencies are fighting several court cases in Hong Kong, United Kingdom and United States to bring these economic offenders to book.
Quite recently India won a court battle to extradite Vijay Mallya back to India from London.