Once a leading figure in India’s diamond industry, Mehul Choksi is now infamous as the mastermind behind one of the country’s largest banking frauds and is currently facing extradition from Belgium to India.
Born in Mumbai in 1959 and educated in Gujarat, Choksi inherited his father’s diamond business and transformed it into the global Gitanjali Group. Known for his flamboyant lifestyle, he lived with his wife Preeti and their three children in luxury — while orchestrating what would become a Rs 13,500 crore scam that shook India’s financial sector.
The burly businessman expanded Gitanjali Gems into a retail powerhouse with over 4,000 outlets across India and abroad. Celebrities such as Aishwarya Rai, Kareena Kapoor, and Katrina Kaif endorsed his brand, helping it gain aspirational value among Indian consumers.
International expansion followed, with partnerships across the US, Europe, Japan, and the West Asia. However, behind the glitz, financial mismanagement and fraudulent practices were beginning to unravel.
In early 2018, Punjab National Bank, India’s second-largest lender, reported it had been defrauded to the tune of Rs 13,500 crore. The scam involved fraudulent Letters of Undertaking and Foreign Letters of Credit, issued by bribed bank officials at the Brady House branch in Mumbai. These instruments, essentially bank guarantees, were never recorded in the bank’s core systems, allowing Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi to siphon off massive sums over years.
Choksi fled India in January 2018, just days before the scandal broke. His escape was calculated — he had already secured citizenship of Antigua and Barbuda in 2017 through their Citizenship by Investment Programme, anticipating the fallout. At the time, Antigua had no extradition treaty with India, making it a safe haven. Indian authorities, including the CBI and ED, initiated legal proceedings, attaching properties and freezing accounts. By December 2024, assets worth Rs 2,566 crore linked to Choksi and his associates were recovered or auctioned.
Despite Interpol withdrawing its Red Corner Notice in 2023, India kept on renewing the extradition requests. In the meantime, Choksi quietly relocated to Antwerp, Belgium — a city with deep ties to the diamond trade. His legal team maintained that his move was due to health concerns, but Indian authorities viewed it as yet another attempt to evade justice.
In 2021, he vanished from Antigua and resurfaced in Dominica under mysterious circumstances, allegedly trying to escape to Cuba by boat. He claimed he was abducted from Antigua as part of a honey-trap. His wife alleged Hungarian national Barbara Jabarika was involved. Barbara rejected the accusations, calling herself Choksi’s “girlfriend”. She said she had her own business, and didn’t rely on him for money, fake jewelry, or anything else. “Raj (Mehul Choksi) was the one who approached me, asked for my number, and initiated the friendship,” Barbara stated.
He was detained for illegally entering the country and spent 51 days in custody. Though the Indian government sought his deportation, Dominican courts ruled otherwise, allowing him to return to Antigua. By 2024, he was once again on the move — this time to Belgium with his spouse.
Choksi’s downfall began around 2013, when market volatility, falling share prices, and stricter regulations exposed cracks in Gitanjali’s foundations. The regulator SEBI banned the company from trading, and Choksi responded by downsizing operations, laying off employees, and shutting international stores. But it was the PNB fraud that sealed his fate. Alongside Nirav Modi, he had exploited systemic loopholes to manipulate banks and investors. Their actions revived bitter memories of previous financial scams, like that of Harshad Mehta in the 1990s.
Choksi is seen as both a symbol of unchecked corporate greed a regulatory oversight failure. From a diamond mogul who dazzled Bollywood to a fugitive trying to dodge extradition laws, Choksi’s story is a stark reminder that even the brightest success stories can collapse under the long-arm of the law.