TOI Correspondent from London: Diamond businessman Mehul Choksi has dropped a multi-million-pound London high court damages claim he was bringing against the Indian govt and a Hungarian woman named Barbara Jarabik, living in the UK, for allegedly kidnapping him in Antigua in a honeytrap plot on May 23, 2021.
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The Indian national (67), represented by Edward Fitzgerald KC, alleged at the HC that the Indian govt conspired with five individuals to unlawfully kidnap, torture and extrajudicially render him from Antigua to India, via Dominica, where he is accused of involvement in the £1.3 billion Punjab National Bank fraud. Choksi is in jail in Antwerp, where he is appealing a Belgian court’s extradition order to India.
Earlier, Justice Mansfield had ordered that Choksi should pay security costs of £425,000 in respect of Gurdip Bath, now St Christopher and Nevis high commissioner to India, and Leslie Farrow-Guy, a British national and former driver of Bath, and £252,000 security costs in respect of Gurmit Singh, an Indian national, and Gurjit Singh Bhandal, a British Indian, for their legal costs should Choksi lose the case. “Much of the evidence relied on for this application is hearsay. There is no witness evidence as to the kidnapping and assault of the claimant, other than that of the claimant himself,” the judge had said.
Choksi failed to pay the security to the court by the deadline, and so the claim was struck out against the four male defendants. “Subsequently, he has discontinued the case against the government of India and Jarabik,” 9BR Chambers, whose barrister, Gary Summers, represented Bath and Farrow-Guy, said.
Choksi had claimed all five were living in the UK, where he alleges the conspiracy was hatched. He claims they all travelled to Antigua together to carry out the kidnapping, where Jarabik is alleged to have lured Choksi to an apartment, after which he was forcibly put onto a boat to Dominica, where he says he was threatened and assaulted.
Choksi alleges the Indian govt orchestrated the kidnapping.
They all deny wrongdoing, and the Indian government and the four male individuals claimed state immunity in this case and disputed the jurisdiction of the UK courts.
