Judge decides today whether DPP should be examined in Choksi’s bail application

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by Shermain Bique-Charles

[email protected]

A high court judge in Dominica will hand down her decision today on whether attorneys for Indian fugitive Mehul Choksi should be allowed to cross examine the Director of Public Prosecutions Sherma Dalrymple when the application for bail comes up at 11am. 

The judge will decide at around 9am, according to sources.

At a closed chamber hearing yesterday morning, Choksi’s attorney Cara Shillingford-Marsh told the court that the affidavit submitted by the DPP had significant inconsistencies.

The DPP has insisted that Choksi should not be granted bail because he is a flight risk.

Choksi was reported missing from his Antigua home on May 23. Dominican authorities subsequently arrested him for illegally entering the country via Toucari Beach. 

The diamond dealer maintains his innocence, saying that he was abducted and taken to the nature isle by yacht, in an operation organised by high level officials.

The Dominican government previously declared Choksi a “prohibited immigrant”, it emerged yesterday.

The country’s National Security and Home Affairs Ministry ordered police to take the necessary action to remove Choksi from Dominica under an order issued on May 25 and leaked to Observer. It said police had been instructed to have him repatriated. 

Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi are accused of siphoning off close to US$2 billion from the Punjab National Bank using letters of undertaking. 

Choksi secured Antigua and Barbuda citizenship in November 2017 under the Citizenship by Investment programme.

The 62-year-old remained under police guard at Dominica-China Friendship Hospital up to last night.

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