In response to queries despatched by the PTI, the general public prosecutor on the Court docket of Attraction in Antwerp stated Choksi filed an enchantment within the Court docket of Cassation on October 30.
“This enchantment is strictly restricted to authorized deserves and will likely be judged by the Court docket of Cassation. Throughout this process, the execution of the extradition is suspended,” Ken Witpas stated.
The Court docket of Cassation is the Supreme Court docket of Belgium.
On October 17, a four-member indictment chamber on the Court docket of Appeals in Antwerp discovered no infirmity within the orders issued by the pre-trial chamber of the district court docket on November 29, 2024, terming the arrest warrants issued by a Mumbai particular court docket in Might 2018 and June 2021 as “enforceable”, permitting Choksi's extradition.
The Court docket of Appeals dominated that fugitive Choksi, the primary accused in a Rs-13,000 crore PNB rip-off, faces “no threat” of being denied a good trial or subjected to ill-treatment if he's extradited to India. Of the Rs 13,000-crore rip-off, Choksi alone has siphoned off Rs 6,400 crore, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has alleged in its chargesheet. Choksi, who escaped to Antigua and Barbuda in January 2018, days earlier than the rip-off was detected, was noticed in Belgium, the place he had purportedly reached for looking for remedy.
India despatched an extradition request to Belgium on August 27, 2024, based mostly on arrest warrants issued by the particular court docket in Mumbai.
The general public prosecutor on the Court docket of First Occasion in Antwerp, Division Turnhout, initiated an motion on November 25, 2024, looking for the enforcement of arrest warrants issued by the Mumbai court docket.
The pre-trial chamber of the Antwerp District Court docket, Turnhout Division, in its order dated November 29, 2024, declared that the arrest warrants in opposition to Choksi issued by the Mumbai court docket have been enforceable, aside from the order associated to “inflicting the disappearance of proof of the crime”.
India has given quite a lot of assurances to Belgium relating to Choksi's security, the costs that he would face throughout trial in India, jail preparations, human rights and medical wants.
