The Bombay High Court on Thursday directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to clarify whether diamantaire Mehul Choksi is a citizen of India or another country. The court issued this directive during the hearing of a petition filed by Choksi, seeking the cancellation of the non-bailable warrant (NBW) issued against him in 2018 by a Mumbai sessions court. Justice Shivkumar Dige, presiding over the bench, raised the question of Choksi’s citizenship status.
Public Prosecutor Hiten Venegaonkar, representing the ED, stated that Choksi holds dual citizenship—Indian and Antiguan—but noted that he required further instructions from authorities to confirm this information. On the other hand, Choksi’s advocate, Vijay Aggarwal, appearing via video conference from London, asserted that Choksi had already renounced his Indian citizenship.
In response, the bench instructed Venegaonkar to verify the citizenship status and scheduled the next hearing for May 2.
In a separate petition, Choksi, represented by advocates Rahul Agarwal and Jasmine Puranik, sought permission to attend hearings via video conference due to health concerns that allegedly prevent him from traveling. Although Aggarwal initially requested additional time to amend the petition, the bench noted that the petition had been pending since 2020 and emphasized, “I don’t want to keep such an old petition pending.”
