Indian fugitive jeweller accused in nearly $2bn bank fraud arrested in Belgium: report

Published April 14, 2025
Fugitive jeweller Mehul Choksi. — Photo courtesy ANI/File
Fugitive jeweller Mehul Choksi. — Photo courtesy ANI/File

Fugitive jeweller Mehul Choksi has been arrested in Belgium, a source with India’s Enforcement Directorate told Reuters, seven years after details of his involvement in one of India’s biggest bank frauds became public.

The Indian government had sent a request for Choksi’s extradition prior to his arrest, but he is likely to challenge it on medical grounds, the source added.

Punjab National Bank (PNB), India’s second largest state-run lender by assets, had announced in 2018 that it had discovered alleged fraud worth $1.8 billion at a single branch in Mumbai.

The bank had filed a criminal complaint with India’s federal investigative agency against several entities, including billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi and Choksi, his uncle and the managing director of Gitanjali Gems, saying they had defrauded PNB.

Indian federal police filed fraud charges against Choksi, Nirav Modi and others in connection with suspected involvement in fraudulent transactions that led to huge losses for PNB.

The two diamond tycoons have denied any wrongdoing.

Choksi said in a letter in 2018 that the “investigating agencies were acting with pre-determined minds and interfering with the course of justice.” Reuters was unable to immediately contact his lawyer on Monday.

Nirav Modi fled India in 2018 before details of his alleged role in the case became public. He was arrested in Britain in 2019 and remains in custody there, although he has lost one extradition appeal.

Last week, a Pakistani-born Canadian businessman accused of helping orchestrate the 2008 attacks in Mumbai landed in New Delhi after the US extradited him in the first such transfer in a terrorism case.

Opinion

Geopolitical shift in ME

Geopolitical shift in ME

A prolonged conflict will have far-reaching implications for regional geopolitics, sharpening the divisions among Gulf countries that are directly affected by the tensions.

Editorial

Unyielding stances
Updated 13 May, 2026

Unyielding stances

Every day that passes without clarity on how and when the war will end introduces fresh intensity to the uncertainty roiling global markets and adds to the economic turmoil the world must bear because of it.
Gwadar rising?
13 May, 2026

Gwadar rising?

COULD the Middle East conflict prove to be a boon for the Gwadar port? Islamabad’s push to position Gwadar as a...
Locked in
13 May, 2026

Locked in

THE acquittal of as many as 74 PTI activists by a Peshawar court in a case pertaining to the May 2023 violence is a...
Bannu attack
Updated 12 May, 2026

Bannu attack

The security narrative and strategy of the KP government diverges considerably from the state’s position.
Cotton crisis
12 May, 2026

Cotton crisis

PAKISTAN’S cotton economy is once again facing a crisis that exposes the country’s flawed agricultural and...
Buddhist heritage
12 May, 2026

Buddhist heritage

THE revival of Buddhist chants at the ancient Dharmarajika Stupa in Taxila after nearly 1,500 years is much more ...