Choksi’s Brother Met Dominican Oppn Leader, Assured Poll Donation to Press Matter in Parl: Report

Absconding diamantaire Mehul Choksi’s brother Chetan Chinubhai Choksi met with Dominican leader of opposition Lennox Linton for two hours to negotiate election donation in exchange for pressing the matter in the Caribbean country’s parliament, according to reports.

The Dominican media outlet Associates Times reported that Chetan Choksi has given token money of $2,00,000 to Linton and promised him more than a million-dollar of financial assistance in the upcoming general elections.

The report comes as Choksi’s case will come for hearing tomorrow (local time) before the High Court of Dominica. A team of multi-agency officials led by a CBI DIG has gone to Dominica to bring back Choksi if the Caribbean island country allows his deportation to India.

Choksi, who mysteriously went missing on May 23 from Antigua and Barbuda, where he has been staying since 2018 as a citizen, was detained in neighbouring Dominica for illegal entry after a possible romantic escapade with his rumoured girlfriend. His lawyers alleged that he was kidnapped from Jolly Harbour in Antigua by policemen looking like Antiguan and Indian and brought to Dominica on a boat.

Choksi’s arrest and deportation resulted in a political slugfest with Dominican LoP Linton accusing Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit over the “very questionable transfer” of Choksi from Antigua without a passport. “The PM must answer this why Dominican authorities seem to be so involved in this very irregular, very questionable transfer of Indian born jeweller from his residence in Antigua, that too without his passport,” Linton told the Hindustan Times.

Alleging that Choksi was kidnapped in Antigua, beaten and forcefully ferried to Dominica indicates “the extent to which departments of government are involved in the organized crime under the influence and/or direction of the regime of Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit”, he said.

However, he clarified that he has no issues with the Indian government’s “full right to prosecute.”

Linton had previously targeted Antiguan Prime Minister Gaston Browne, alleging involvement in Choksi’s abduction. “Even though Choksi’s citizenship was unsettled, we respected his legal and constitutional rights as a citizen, and we did nothing to abridge those rights whilst he was on Antiguan and Barbudan soil,” Browne was quoted as saying.

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