The Enforcement Directorate's (ED) plea to declare absconding diamond trader Mehul Choksi, arrested in Belgium, a fugitive economic offender has been pending in a Mumbai court for seven years. However, Mehul's nephew Nirav Modi has already been declared a fugitive economic offender by a special court. He has been lodged in a London jail since 2019.
The ED had filed a petition in July 2018, appealing to declare Mehul a fugitive economic offender (FEO) and seize his property under the Act. However, the case was repeatedly delayed as the accused filed several applications in the Bombay High Court. These alleged flaws in the ED's petition.
After the hearing was adjourned again in February this year, an ED official said that the courts are kept busy with frivolous applications. After the petition was presented, the court should have continued the hearing and decided on future proceedings. He had urged the court to take note of similar applications being filed repeatedly and not consider them.
The hearing not start even after the High Court's decision
Mehul had challenged the ED's application in the Bombay High Court and alleged that the agency did not follow due process before applying, so it was defective. Also, the suspension of his Indian passport has made it impossible for him to return for investigation. However, in September 2023, the High Court dismissed his petition and ruled that the ED had followed the format prescribed under the FEO Act. Also, the stay on the proceedings of the special court was lifted.
Despite this, the hearing on declaring Mehul as FEO could not start as Choksi continued to file applications before the special court through his lawyers. Most of these petitions were dismissed, but some are still pending. His recent attempt to stop the proceedings through a petition to withdraw the notice issued on the ED's FEO application was rejected in December 2023.
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