Choksi’s petition missing from advocate’s office: Bombay HC gives time till February 17 to reconstruct papers

The advocate for fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi informed the Bombay High Court on Thursday that one of his party's petitions was not traceable.

Mr Choksi had filed a petition in 2019, seeking to quash the FIR registered against him by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). His advocate Rahul Agarwal told the division bench of Justices Nitin Sambre and RN Laddha that due to the lockdown and shifting of office, he was not able to find his own petition. He sought time to reconstruct the papers.

The bench then asked CBI counsel Hiten Venegaonkar if he had a copy of the petition. Mr Venegaonkar replied in the negative.

When the bench said it would give one day’s time to Mr Agarwal, the advocate said that he had even gone to the office of the Maharashtra prosecution, but they also did not have a copy. He, therefore, requested a little more time to reconstruct the petition.

On a court query on where Mr Choksi is at present, Mr Agarwal said “Antigua”, whereas Mr Venegaonkar said the diamantaire was “missing”. Mr Venegaonkar said that the central agency has initiated economic offender proceedings against him.

HC has kept the matter for hearing on February 17.

Mr Choksi has been in Antigua since the multi-crore PNB scam came to light. He has been citing medical issues to claim that he cannot undertake such a long trip because of his ill health. Mr Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi are both wanted by the ED and CBI in the PNB scam.