Diamond tycoon ‘kidnapped and smuggled onto yacht in honeytrap plot'

A diamond tycoon was kidnapped and smuggled via yacht across the Caribbean in a honeytrap plot, the High Court has heard.
Mehul Choksi was taken from Antigua to Dominica as part of an alleged Indian intelligence operation.
The 66-year-old claims his abductors hoped to extradite him back to India, where he is accused of involvement in the country's biggest bank fraud.
He is suing the Indian government, claiming it plotted the kidnapping, alongside the five individuals said to have carried it out in 2021.
Choksi is wanted in connection with Nirav Modi, his diamond magnate nephew.
Modi, known as the Diamond King, saw his jewellery empire collapse in 2018 when Indian authorities accused him of overseeing a £1.3 billion 'Ponzi-like' fraud scheme.
The 54-year-old has been in a British prison fighting extradition to India since his arrest in 2019.
Edward Fitzgerald KC, representing Choksi, told a preliminary hearing that only India had the ability to carry out the kidnapping.
'The evidence points inevitably to India being behind this – they had the motivation, they had the resources,' he said.
The court was told an investigation by Antigua police found five UK-based individuals – Gurdip Bath, Barbara Jarabik, Leslie Farrow-Guy, Gurmit Singh and Gurjit Singh Bhandal – were involved. All deny wrongdoing.
'Interrogated by Indian agencies'
The hearing was told Jarabik, a 35-year-old Hungarian luxury goods expert who was living in England, asked Choksi to visit her apartment on the island.
However, upon his arrival, a group of men detained him and told him he was being 'interrogated by Indian agencies', it was heard.
Choksi alleges he was beaten in a failed attempt to extort a false confession and implicate India's political opposition, which he said pointed to state involvement in the incident.
He was then said to have been taken from the yacht by the Dominican coastguard vessel.
Despite India applying to extradite him to his native country, he was freed on bail two months later.
India's lawyer Harish Salve said in court filings that 'there is no evidence of India having anything to do with the alleged events'. India argues it has state immunity.

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