Mumbai: The special court while refusing to call details of Mehul Choksi from passport authority of India, said that if he had grievance against cancelation of passport and he was willing to return to India, he should have moved appropriate forum at that very time. And that now he cannot make that as a ground for his failure to return to India.
Choksi had claimed that he could not return to India as his passport was canceled. In the plea, they have sought records from the passport authorities to submit the record related to his passport and evidence to show that Choksi knew about the cases having been filed against him in connection with the PNB fraud.
Choksi had left India on January 2, 2018, claiming he was heading for better medical treatment. The accused had claimed that he didn't leave India to avoid criminal prosecution nor is he refusing to return to the country. He said his passport has been suspended by Indian authorities.
The special court on Wednesday rejected the plea of Diamantaire Mehul Choksi, a key accused in the multi-crore PNB scam, seeking record from Regional Passport Authority Bombay in respect of passport. Choksi’s lawyers had moved a plea before the special court hearing the plea of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to declare Choksi a fugitive economic offender.
The special judge SM Menjoge while rejecting, Choksi’s plea stated that, "It is pertinent to note that suspension of Indian Passport by Regional Passport Authority is in the domain of it. If applicant Mehul Choksi is not satisfied with grounds mentioned for the same, he has forum to challenge it. That issue cannot be decided by this court. Simply raising objection to suspension passport is not remedy."
Meanwhile, the court had party allowed the plea of Choksi to call for the record of the investigating officer to decide the plea to declare him as fugitive economic offender.
Choksi had claimed that he had left India much before the case was registered and he called for the record so as to show on what basis the investigating officer concluded that Choksi had a knowledge of the bank fraud case registered against him.
The court however said, "applicant is requesting the court to call not all papers but only relevant papers of investigation that he was aware of alleged bank fraud be unearthed and therefore, he left India to avoid the same. This fact cannot be gathered from the documents."
The court further said that, "It is fact which is especially within the knowledge of applicant himself. He has to prove the same. How Investigating officer can prove that applicant was having knowledge of the same or not by documentary proof. Person who commits any offence or act can know the same." The court has hence called only the records which is relevant to decide the plea to declare Choksi fugitive economic offender.
