Mehul Choksi granted bail by Dominica HC on medical grounds; fugitive diamantaire to return to Antigua

Fugitive Indian diamantaire Mehul Choksi was granted interim bail by the Dominica High Court on Monday as per reports. The bail is granted strictly for medical treatment in Antigua, according to news agency ANI. As per the court’s decision, Choksi can travel to neighbouring Antigua and Barbuda only for the purpose of medical treatment. The interim bail has been granted till he is certified fit to travel, after which he has to return to Dominica, ANI reported. The court has also stayed the ongoing trial before a magistrate for his alleged illegal entry into Dominica on 23 May. The high court has granted a consent order permitting Choksi to go to Antigua, where he has been staying as a citizen since 2018 after he left India, after depositing Eastern Caribbean Dollars 10,000. He had approached the Dominica High Court last week seeking relief on the ground that his health was deteriorating and he needed urgent medical attention. His legal team had submitted a medical certificate from the doctors of Dominica China Friendship Hospital, where Choksi was being held, stating that he is suffers from “mental stress" and elevated blood pressure, News18 reported. Alleging that his arrest was “dictated” by representatives of the Indian government, Choksi had filed a case in the high court of Dominica’s Roseau city, seeking to quash the proceedings against him, local media there had reported last week. The case was filed against the immigration minister of the Caribbean nation, its police chief and the investigating officer of the case. Choksi, who went missing from Antigua and Barbuda where he had been living since 2018 after his escape from India, was arrested on May 23 in neighbouring Dominica for illegal entry. He was declared a prohibited immigrant by the Ministry of Immigration in Dominica. With inputs from PTI