A Belgian court has ruled that fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi, the main accused in the ₹13,000 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam, faces “no risk” of being denied a fair trial or subjected to ill-treatment if extradited to India.
A four-member indictment chamber at the Court of Appeals in Antwerp found no infirmity in the orders issued by the pretrial chamber of the Antwerp district court on November 29, 2024. The district court had deemed arrest warrants issued by a Mumbai special court in May 2018 and June 2021 as “enforceable”, allowing Choksi’s extradition.
Dismissing Choksi’s appeal against the district court, the Court of Appeals held that the 66-year-old businessman failed to provide “concretely plausible” evidence of a “genuine risk” of torture or denial of justice.
The order comes as a strong validation of India’s case seeking his extradition, though Choksi retains the option of appealing to Belgium’s Supreme Court, officials said.
The Court of Appeals noted that the documents submitted by Choksi did not substantiate his claim of being subjected to a political trial. “It is up to the subject to provide evidence demonstrating substantial grounds to believe that there is a genuine risk of ill-treatment upon extradition,” the court said.
