TIL Desk/Business/New Delhi/ Antigua has claimed it was told by Indian agencies that there was no adverse information against Mehul Choksi when it did a background check on the fugitive billionaire before granting him citizenship in 2017, a local media report in the Caribbean nation has said.
Official sources said the Ministry of External Affairs has received the extradition request from the CBI and is currently in the process of sending it to the authorities in Antigua and Barbuda.
While the Antiguan authority responsible for granting investment-linked citizenship named the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) as one of the Indian agencies to have given such a clearance in case of Choksi, the Indian capital markets regulator rejected the claim saying it neither received any such request, nor provided any such information to the concerned department in Antigua.
Choksi’s application for citizenship in Antigua in May 2017 was accompanied with clearance from the local police as required by norms, Antiguan newspaper reported, citing a statement from the Citizenship by Investment Unit of Antigua and Barbuda (CIU).
