On Tuesday, April 22, 2025, a Belgian court denied bail to Mehul Choksi, the diamond businessman accused in the ₹13,000-crore Punjab National Bank fraud case, according to his lawyer. Choksi was arrested in Antwerp on April 12 by Belgian authorities following an extradition request from India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED). His lawyer, Vijay Aggarwal, confirmed that the court turned down the bail request during the hearing. A senior official added that Choksi would now fight for extradition while remaining in jail.

Choksi, who is 65 years old, was found in Belgium last year after arriving there around November 2023, reportedly for medical treatment. Before that, he had been living in Antigua since he left India in 2018. Although he became a citizen of the Caribbean nation, his Indian citizenship is still considered valid.

According to official sources, Indian authorities have sent at least two non-expiring arrest warrants, issued by a special Mumbai court in 2018 and 2021, to Belgian officials as part of their request to extradite him. Vijay Aggarwal had previously mentioned that Choksi was "extremely sick and undergoing treatment for cancer".

In 2018, the CBI and the ED filed cases against Choksi, Nirav Modi, their relatives, employees, bank officials, and others for their alleged involvement in a loan fraud at Punjab National Bank’s Brady House branch in Mumbai. It was claimed that Choksi, his company Gitanjali Gems, and others "committed the offence of cheating against PNB in connivance with certain bank officials by fraudulently getting the LOUs (letters of undertaking) issued and got the FLCs (foreign letter of credit) enhanced without following prescribed procedure and caused a wrongful loss to the bank."

The CBI has submitted at least two chargesheets against him in this matter, while the ED has filed three charges of prosecution.