CBI Seeks For Non-Bailable Warrant Against Mehul Choksi In Bezel Jewellery Fraud To Aid Belgian Extradition

The CBI is preparing documentation to submit before the Belgian authorities as part of the process to extradite fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi. The agency is currently working to obtain a non-bailable warrant against Choksi in connection with another fraud case registered against him and other executives of the firm, Bezel Jewellery (India) Pvt Ltd, by the agency.

In this fraud case, the CBI had filed the chargesheet in December last year, but it is yet to come up for hearing. On Wednesday, the agency officials approached the special sessions court in Mumbai, requesting it to take up the case for hearing and issue a non-bailable warrant against Choksi as it would strengthen the case for his extradition.

However, the court, instead of passing an order on the plea, remanded the case to the special CBI magistrate court, which has been directed to decide on the plea promptly. The sessions court explained that it lacked jurisdiction as the agency had neither added charges of corruption to the case nor named any public servants as accused. It also observed that provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act were not applicable to the case and hence it fell under the magistrate court’s jurisdiction.

The CBI had registered the fraud case against Bezel Jewellery, Choksi (who served as its whole-time director and promoter), and three other full-time directors (Chetna Jhaveri, Dinesh Bhatia, and Milind Limaye) as well as unknown public servants in July 2022. In December 2024, the agency filed a chargesheet but did not name any public officials, dropping the corruption charges.

The case was registered based on a complaint by the Chief General Manager of Canara Bank’s Circle Office in Mumbai, alleging that the firm had cheated it and the Bank of Maharashtra to the tune of Rs55.27 crore regarding working capital facilities sanctioned under a consortium arrangement.

It was claimed that Bezel was sanctioned an open cash credit / overdraft against bank’s deposit limit (fund-based) of Rs10 crore and a sub-limit (non-fund-based) of Rs20 crore by Canara Bank’s Girgaum branch. Bezel availed a fund-based limit of Rs30 crore, while the Bank of Maharashtra sanctioned a limit of Rs25 crore.

It is alleged that Bezel repaid long-term borrowings of Rs18 crore to its parent company, Gitanjali Gems, in its first year, thereby diverting its working capital limit. The CBI claimed that the entire Rs10 crore limit sanctioned by Canara Bank was diverted to Gitanjali Gems on February 28, 2013, the day the credit facilities were availed.

Further, the probe revealed that the firm availed a bank guarantee limit of Rs20 crore from Canara Bank to secure a gold loan from HDFC Bank but did not provide any transaction details to the bank. It was alleged that though the loan was granted to Bezel for manufacturing and sales of gold and diamond-studded jewellery, none of the business transactions were routed through the Canara Bank account since its inception.

The CBI alleged that Bezel Jewellery and its directors diverted the entire foreign remittance received against the export of plain jewellery. This was manufactured using gold purchased under the Gold Metal Loan availed from HDFC Bank Ltd. against a ₹20 crores bank guarantee. Allegedly, this remittance was used to reduce the overdrawings in the Cash Credit accounts of M/s Gitanjali Gems Ltd. and M/s Gitanjali Exports Corporation Ltd.