Mehul Choksi may have taken girlfriend on romantic trip to Dominica, got caught: Antiguan PM

New Delhi, May 30: In a sensational claim, Antigua Prime Minister Gaston Browne has said Fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi may have left his sanctuary in Antigua and taken a boat ride to neighbouring Dominica to have dinner or a ''good time'' with his girlfriend.

''The information that we are getting is that Mehul Choksi may have taken his girlfriend to Dominica probably to have dinner or have a good time and so on and got caught. That would have been a monumental error because in Antigua he is a citizen, we could not deport him...,'' he said.

''The problem is if he is sent back to Antigua because he is an Antiguan citizen, even though his citizenship is unsettled, he still enjoys constitutional and legal protections. We have no doubt that his citizenship will ultimately be revoked because he did not disclose material information,'' Browne said.

Various theories have been doing rounds on Choksi's mysterious escape to Dominica. It is said that the ex-diamantaire wanted India for the Rs 13,500 crore PNB scam, was trying to flee to Cuba.

While Choksi has alleged that he was abducted from Jolly Harbour in Antigua and Barbuda by policemen looking like Antiguan and Indian and taken to Dominica.

Purported pictures of 62-year-old Choksi that have surfaced in Dominica shows him with red swollen eye and bruises on his hands.

Meanwhile, India sent a private jet to Dominica carrying documents related to the deportation of fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi, wanted in a Rs 13,500 crore bank loan fraud case, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda Gaston Browne told a radio show in his country.

There was, however, no immediate official confirmation from Indian authorities about it.

A Qatar Airways private jet landed at the Douglas-Charles airport in Dominica, Antigua News Room reported, leading to speculations about deportation of Choksi who was detained in the Caribbean island nation after his mysterious disappearance from neighbouring Antigua and Barbuda.

Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi are wanted for allegedly siphoning Rs 13,500 crore of public money from the state-run Punjab National Bank (PNB) using letters of undertaking.

While Modi is in a London prison after being repeatedly denied bail and is contesting his extradition to India, Choksi took citizenship of Antigua and Barbuda in 2017 using the Citizenship by Investment programme before fleeing India in the first week of January 2018. The scam came to light subsequently.

Both are facing a CBI probe.