ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – Commissioner of Police Atlee Rodney has “categorically” denied claims of any misconduct on the part of a senior police officer surrounding the ongoing investigations involving Indian national Mehul Choksi, wanted in India on fraud-related charges.
In July 2021, a High Court judge in Dominica granted the India-born Antigua and Barbuda citizen EC$10,000 (one EC dollar=US$0.37 cents) bail to allow him to travel to ST. John’s for medical treatment.
Choksi, 64, had pleaded not guilty to illegally entering Dominica in late May 2021, claiming that he had been kidnapped in Antigua and taken to Roseau on May 23.
The Indian judicial authorities want Choksi for criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, cheating, and dishonesty, including delivery of property, corruption, and money laundering.
The statement by the Commissioner of Police denying the claims of misconduct in the investigations follows the publication of an article in the Economist Times of India on January 13, written by an internet blogger, Kenneth Rijock, in which specific allegations against a senior member of the police force and a magistrate had been made.
“It is most unfortunate that Mr. Kenneth Rijock, on his internet blog, made several false statements concerning the Antigua and Barbuda Police Force about Mr. Mehul Choksi without ascertaining the facts,” said Rodney.
”The entire blog is false with inadequate or no research of the facts and has a malicious purpose and ought not to have been posted,” Rodney added, saying the police here have no interest in assisting Choksi in avoiding extradition from Antigua and Barbuda as alleged by Rijock, and, in any event, has no power to do so.
The Police Commissioner explained that upon issuing a Red Notice by INTERPOL, stating that the law enforcement authorities wanted Choksi in India, and a request to the Attorney-General for his extradition, an extradition order was issued by a Commonwealth Treaty governing extradition of wanted persons.
Subsequently, Choksi challenged his extradition in the courts, and he has delayed extradition by that process.
Rodney said Antigua and Barbuda is a democratic nation where the rule of law prevails. Under the Constitution of the country.
“Choksi has the right to seek a hearing by the court, and only the court can order his extradition by judicial process. His matter is still before the Courts because of his legal interventions”.
In the article, Rijock states that the senior police officer, whom he named Choksi, “have been meeting” at a restaurant here “alleging bribery.”
But the Police Commissioner’s statement noted that “only two engagements have been held between” Choksi and the senior police officer and that “both engagements occurred around August 2021 and June 2022 during an investigation, where Mr. Choksi alleged he was kidnapped from Antigua and transported against his will to Dominica.
“Besides, the two interviews were not conducted at the Al Porto Restaurant in Jolly Harbour as Mr. Rijock claims, but at Mr. Choksi’s office, upstairs in the same building of the Restaurant in the presence of his attorney,” the statement added.
Rijock, in his article, also named a magistrate for conspiring with the senior police officer “to interfere with INTERPOL’s efforts to detain Mr. Choksi for extradition to India.”
But the Police Commissioner said that the only connection between the two “in this matter was to secure a warrant, requesting INTERPOL to issue a Red Notice for three foreign persons, who, Mr. Choksi claims were participants in his alleged kidnapping. Those Red Notices were approved and issued by INTERPOL”.
Rodney said, “it is most regrettable that without offering any proof whatsoever, Mr. Rijock has included judges and law enforcement agencies in allegations of bribery by Mr. Choksi, obviously to delay his extradition to India.”
Meanwhile, the lawyers representing Choksi have written to the Registrar of the High Court, Mrs. Cecile Hill, distancing their client from the allegations made by Rijock in his newspaper article.
“In light of the entirely false and seriously defamatory nature of this article, we felt it imperative to bring it to the Court’s attention. The report has been widely cited and published in international news.
“Given the wide-ranging reach of the re-publications, the baseless and defamatory article has the clear and significant potential to undermine the judicial system in Antigua and Barbuda, both at home and abroad. It unquestionably risks bringing the administration of the Antiguan justice system into disrepute on a false basis,’ the lawyers wrote in the letter that was also copied to the Police Commissioner.
“Of course, our client has complete confidence in the independence and impartiality of the Antiguan justice system. However, allegations of this nature could be interpreted as malignly calculated to influence the ongoing proceedings in this case. It is particularly sinister that these baseless and defamatory statements are made when a judgment is pending,” the lawyers wrote.
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