NEW DELHI: Fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi, prime accused in the Rs 13,500 crore Punjab National Bank Fraud Case along with his nephew Nirav Modi has returned to Antigua and Barbuda from where he has accused the Indian agencies of executing a brazen kidnapping' which left him permanently scarred.

After 51 days since he was apprehended and put in jail in Dominica for entering the country illegally, Choksi was given bail by the Dominica High Court to travel back to Antigua for seeking medical help from a neurologist based there.

In an audio message which has been shared by the media, Choksi is heard saying, "I am back home but this torture has left permanent scars on my psychology and physically, rather, permanent scars on my soul. I could never imagine that after closing down all my business and seizing all my properties, a kidnapping attempt would be made on me by the Indian agencies. I was always hearing about it but I never believed that they could go to this extent."

On 23 May 2021, Choksi was reported missing from the Jolly Harbour area in Antigua and Barbuda and three days later on 26th he was found in a nearby Caribbean country of Dominica while trying to flee to Cuba by boat and was held by the local police and he was arrested based on an Interpol notice. 

His lawyers in Dominica had claimed that Choksi was kidnapped by whom Choksi believed to be Indian and Antiguan police and brought to Dominica by a boat. Pictures of Choksi with a swollen eye and several bruises surfaced in public soon after and he was admitted to a hospital for treatment.

Choksi's lawyer in India Vijay Aggarwal had said that there was something fishy and guessed that it was a strategy to take him to another country so that there are chances of sending him back to India.

Meanwhile, a day later a Qatar Airways private jet had landed at the Douglas-Charles airport in Dominica. And although neither the Indian nor the Dominican government say anything, 100 nautical miles away in Antigua and Barbuda, its Prime Minister Gaston Browne confirmed to a radio channel that the jet is from India.

The publicly accessible flight path of the Bombardier Global 5000 jet shows that it took off from New Delhi on May 28 and reached Dominica via Madrid. Apparently, Indian agencies had sent an eight-member multi-agency team to Dominica to bring him back but they returned empty-handed after the efforts were thwarted by court proceedings.