Millionaire Bailed For Medical Treatment After Caribbean Kidnap, Torture Claim

A millionaire diamond magnate who claimed he was kidnapped and tortured has returned to Antigua and Barbuda for medical treatment after being granted bail by Dominican authorities.

Mehul Choksi, 62, returned to Antigua earlier this week after being held in the island nation since May after the Dominican High Court ruled he could not receive adequate medical care there, according to the Indian Express.

The result is a victory for Choksi's legal team who said their client had been kidnapped from Antigua and tortured and had been forcefully whisked away to Dominica where he could be extradited to India, the country of his birth, where he is wanted over his alleged part in a $1.8 billion bank fraud case.

Lawyer Michael Polak, of the legal group Justice Abroad, said Choksi had faced an ordeal that had "a detrimental effect on him physically."

Mr. Polak told Newsweek: "We are very pleased that the Dominican Court has made the principled and humanitarian decision to release Mr. Choksi so that he can access specialist medical care in Antigua.

"Mr. Choksi has been through a very difficult few weeks and has been subject to an ordeal which has had a detrimental effect on him physically. It is the right outcome that he be able to return to Antigua, where he can access the medical attention that he requires to be with his family."

The millionaire, who obtained Antiguan citizenship in November 2017, before he was wanted by Indian authorities, renounced his Indian citizenship in July 2018.

He had been embroiled in a legal battle in Antigua where authorities proposed to remove his citizenship in October 2019.

But, Mr. Polak claimed Choksi was abducted by a London-based group with the aim of extraditing him to India, by taking him to Dominica.

According to the Indian Express, after Choksi was arrested in Dominica, a jet carrying agents from India's Central Bureau of Investigation touched down in Dominica in hopes of returning him to India.

The outlet added, however, that Choksi's case had arrived at the Dominican courts on grounds of illegal entry, forcing the jet to make its long return.

In a statement given to his lawyers before being passed on to Newsweek, Choksi said he had been forced onto a boat and was tortured during his journey.

Mr. Polak earlier told Newsweek that when Choksi arrived in Dominica, he was held in a 20-square-foot cell and had nothing inside, including no mattress for him to rest.

Newsweek has contacted the governments of Antigua and the Commonwealth of Dominica for comment.