Bombay HC fines Mehul Choksi for seeking repeated adjournments in own petition

The Bombay High Court on Friday imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi for seeking an adjournment in his own petition. The amount has to be paid to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

A division bench of Justices Nitin Sambre and RN Laddha imposed the cost after Choksi’s advocate Rahul Agarwal sought adjournment saying he had applied for a certified copy of his own petition from the high court registry, but he has still not received it. He further said that he might get the petition copy by February 18.

On February 2, Agarwal had sought an adjournment saying that he had lost Choksi's petition due to shifting of his office.

Irked by the repeated adjournments, the court imposed the cost. The CJ said that the CBI would have to pay its counsel despite the matter being adjourned and hence said that the cost is to be paid to the central agency.

The court will be hearing the petition again on March 17.

Choksi had filed a petition in 2019, seeking to quash the FIR registered against him by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Choksi was the owner of the Gitanjali Group, a retail jewellery firm with 4,000 stores in India. At present, he is residing in Antigua and Barbuda, where he holds citizenship.

He and his nephew, Nirav Modi, are wanted in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam. He is facing charges in India for criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, cheating and dishonesty, including delivery of property, corruption, and money laundering.