Congress leader and former finance minister, P. Chidambaram, in a tweet on Saturday, has raised questions about how the BJP government allowed Mehul Choksi to leave the country when an affidavit was filed in the Gujarat High Court in July 2016, warning the authorities that Choksi had a debt of over Rs 9,000 crore, and that he was a flight risk.
On 20-7-2016, an affidavit was filed before Gujarat HC alleging that Mehul Choksi was in debt of Rs 9872 crore and he may flee the country.
How did the Gujarat government (BJP) allow him to leave the country in January 2018?
— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) August 4, 2018
How did the central government and the Gujarat government allow Mehul Choksi to leave the country in 2018 when he was under police investigation since 2016?
— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) August 4, 2018
Choksi is Nirav Modi’s accomplice in the PNB fraud scam case and has recently become an Antiguan citizen.
Chidambaram’s claims are backed by media reports that surfaced earlier this year. It was widely reported that a Bhavnagar-based jeweller, had filed the said affidavit which said, “I would like to draw kind attention of this court to the fact that the petitioner has a huge debt of Rs 9,872 crore outstanding which is also specified in the website of the ministry of corporate affairs.”
According to recent reports, Choksi applied for Antiguan Citizenship in 2017, and the Antiguan authorities have clarified that a “clearance certificate” was given to him by the Indian authorities.