Mehul Choksi Accuses Modi Government in London of Kidnapping, Torture, and Attempted Rendition
London: A hearing got underway on Monday (June 16) in a civil suit at the high court in London, which is claiming damages against the Government of India for ‘kidnap, torture and attempted rendition’.
The charge is made by Mehul Choksi, once a billionaire diamond merchant, who was an Indian citizen, but is now a national of the Caribbean state of Antigua and Barbuda. Choksi is designated as a fugitive from justice by the Indian authorities. He is wanted in India over allegations of involvement in a case of defrauding Punjab National Bank of £1.3 billion. He denies the charge.
The prosecution’s plea before the court was, ‘Whatever the allegations the Claimant faces in India, they cannot justify the Indian government being a party to a conspiracy to abduct, torture and render the Claimant.’
Choksi is, consequently, seeking damages. Five others who allegedly worked as agents of the Indian government to commit the crimes are also accused in the case. Meanwhile, Choksi has been under arrest since April 12 in nearby Belgium, where legal proceedings are in progress to extradite him to India.
In the London matter, the Indian government has pleaded diplomatic immunity and challenged the jurisdiction of the court to take up the case. But what is known in British judicial parlance as a ‘case management hearing’ got underway today prior to a possible trial next year.
Four men of Indian origin and a Hungarian woman named in conspiracy along with Indian government
Choksi filed his claim on May 17, 2024, alleging the Indian government through five named individuals abducted him from Antigua and forcibly transported him on a boat to the island of Dominica about 115 miles away. The persons named in the conspiracy are four men of Indian origin and a Hungarian woman.
On September 30, 2024, the Master of the King’s Bench Division at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, John Dagnall, issued an order granting service of the claim on the Indian government. On February 10, 2025, the British Foreign Office issued a certificate of service to the Government of India, which on April 11 acknowledged receipt of it.
On May 23, the Indian government applied to the court to say it has no jurisdiction to try the claim due to ‘state immunity, forum (seemingly arguing that Antigua and/or Dominica are a more appropriate forum) and other matters’. The Government of India’s objections will now be heard by the court.
Choksi’s lawyers wrote to the Indian government on June 4 inviting it to agree that ‘English law was the applicable law, or (in the alternative)’ and ‘that the laws of Antigua and/or Dominica can be presumed to be materially similar’. New Delhi declined to concur.
Furthermore, legal issues in Antigua and Barbuda have ultimately got to be judged by King Charles III’s Privy Council in the United Kingdom, since he is head of state of the islands.
The prosecution’s case is that ‘Between 23 to 24 May 2021, the Claimant (Choksi) was kidnapped from near his then home in Antigua. He was brutally beaten, including being punched, tasered to the face, blind-folded, tied to a wheelchair and gagged. He was knocked unconscious. He awoke to find himself on a sailing vessel, whereupon he was further beaten, knocked unconscious, and threatened with a knife that if he did not agree to voluntarily return to India once the boat arrived in Dominica, he and his family would be killed. Unsurprisingly, the Claimant suffered serious personal and psychiatric injury, the effects of which continue to this day.’
The argument continues, ‘On 24 May 2021, the Claimant was disembarked at the Cabrits ferry terminal in Dominica. Eventually, he was permitted to return to Antigua in July 2021. By this time, the Antiguan police force had started an investigation into his kidnap. In a report dated 25 June 2021, Inspector Adonis Henry concluded that “The plethora of real and circumstantial evidence makes it clear that a case of kidnapping with broad collusion amongst multiple conspirators exists.” The report named five individuals as conspirators.
‘Narendra Modi knows Choksi personally and has publicly referred to him as ‘Mehul bhai’’
It went on to assert, ‘It is the Claimant’s case that the Claimant kidnap was orchestrated by the Government of India (D1). Only D1 had both the motive and the means to conspire with D2 to D6 (namely the five alleged conspirators) unlawfully to render the Claimant.’
Choksi’s case is that the extradition process in Antigua – initiated by the Indian authorities in 2018 –according to officials there, ‘may not start for a further 7 years’.
‘This led the Government of India to formulate with the other Defendants the plan to kidnap and render the Claimant, which they proceeded to do. And it is telling that during the course of his abduction, (two of the alleged conspirators) expressly informed the Claimant that they were working on behalf of the Indian authorities as they sought – through torture and threats to the Claimant’s life and those of his family – to extort a false confession from him that he (in cahoots with the political opposition [in India]) was guilty of the allegations against him in India.’
All defendants have contested jurisdiction. In the narrative presented by the prosecution, the Hungarian woman was hired to lay a Mata Hari-style honey trap to lure Choksi. She denied being involved in the kidnap and stated she resides in Hungary. The prosecution responded by saying her last known address was in London.
Choksi partly won the first round of his battle in 2023, when the High Court of Antigua and Barbuda adjudged that he had an ‘arguable’ case and awarded him 75% of his costs.
A private investigation agency known as I-OnAsia is said to have handed over a dossier of the alleged crimes committed to Britain’s National Crime Agency and London’s Metropolitan Police, better known as Scotland Yard.
Its managing partner told the British daily Guardian, ‘We have examined everything, from flight manifests to hotel documents, which has painted a disturbing picture.’ London-based human rights lawyer, Michael Polak, was the first to complain to the same agencies soon after Choksi’s disappearance from Antigua in 2021.
Choksi maintained that around Diwali in 2018 – when he was in Antigua – he received a phone call from a prominent Indian businessman who is perceived to be close to the powers-that-be in India. This man, whom he named, advised him to return to India, where, despite the allegations against him, he would be extended ‘a safe harbour’.
It was detailed to Choksi that he would be arrested upon arrival, but because of his health issues, would be detained in a hospital. He was advised to donate money to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and assured he would be released after an interval. Narendra Modi knows Choksi personally and has publicly referred to him as ‘Mehul bhai’ or Brother Mehul.
When Choksi refused the offer, he was, he stated, told in Hindi he would be ‘uprooted by force’ (‘ukhar ke layega’). The alleged abduction and attempt to secretly bring him from Dominica to India on a private plane followed in 2021.
Cases in British courts involving criminality of governments
Cases involving criminality of governments are generally only admitted by British courts where regimes or systems concerned are not democratic. For instance in December 2019, the London high court ruled against Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid al Maktoum, regarding the abduction of his daughter Princess Latifa – who had apparently escaped from him – by Indian coastguards or naval forces in the Arabian Sea in March 2018.
The judgement said, ‘The description of the way in which Latifa was treated by the Indian security services and also, once the Arabic man (her father’s agent) had identified her, does not give any indication that this was a “rescue” rather a “capture”.’
On the same subject a United Nations Human Rights Commission Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said, ‘The detainee (Latifa) was extradited (to Dubai) by the Indian forces, which had intercepted her yacht in international waters off the coast of Goa in March 2018, after the Prime Minister of India had made a personal telephone call to the Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and the ruler of the Emirate of Dubai (Sheikh Mohammad).’
In 2023, Choksi relocated from Antigua to Belgium, where he is facing proceedings initiated by the Belgian government to extradite him to India. At a hearing at the Antwerp Court of Justice on 13 June, he was once more denied bail.
Choksi’s lawyers in Belgium have dismissed as false news reports in India last week that detailed evidence was presented by investigators against Choksi at the bail hearing in Antwerp.
BS & D Law and Metis Advocaten, two sets of Belgian lawyers representing Choksi, stated, ‘No detailed evidence was presented by “the investigators”. It was still the basic extradition request file, as filed by the Indian judiciary authorities in August 2024. Supplemented by an extensive file of exhibits submitted by the defence to challenge the enforceability of the Indian arrest warrants.’
The law firms added, ‘The hearing took place in court in the morning and took less than half an hour. The prosecutor demanded to postpone the case in order to give the prosecutor’s office time to respond to the arguments of the defence. The court granted the postponement.’
Choksi’s lawyers also contested the Indian Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) taking credit for tracking down Choksi in Belgium. They said, ‘Mr. Choksi had moved to Belgium in a legal way, and had registered his stay and address with the competent Belgian authorities. Mr. Choksi himself informed the judicial authorities of his move to Belgium. The Belgian and Indian authorities were already informed by Mr. Choksi himself of his move to Belgium in 2023.’
The London hearing took place on a day when Modi was headed to Canada for the G7 Summit. India is not a member of this body, but attends by virtue of invitations extended to it courtesy of the host country.
Modi was invited by Canada at the last minute after the Canadian authorities said the Indian side had agreed to cooperate with an onging investigation regarding the 2023 murder of Khalistani activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
The Canadian authorities have been claiming they have proof linking Indian government agents to the murder.
In November 2024, Canada denied it had evidence that Modi was himself linked to violence on Canadian soil. But a senior Canadian official had the previous month accused Indian home minister Amit Shah of being behind the campaign of intimidation against Sikh separatists in Canada.
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