The United Workers Party (UWP) in Dominica is adding its voice to the Mehul Choksi saga that has been the topic of international and regional reports since May 23, when the Indian man was allegedly abducted from Antigua & Barbuda.
UWP, Dominica’s main opposition party, has issued a statement in which it alleges that there is a conspiracy to get Choksi back to his country of birth to face fraud charges.
“The presence of … Choksi in Dominica … highlights once again the extent to which departments of government are involved in organized crime under the influence and/or direction of the regime of Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit,” the UWP release reads.
Accordingly, the party is making a call for the immediate end to what it terms “this reckless ‘No law, No Constitution’ governance conduct that disgraces Dominica as a rogue element … .”
Further, the UWP says that State actors in Dominica – and, allegedly, Antigua – appear to be part of plot against the legal protection guaranteed to citizens, and this is “undermining the judiciary in the … Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court for the benefit of a foreign power.”
The UWP Leader, Lennox Linton, says he believes that Choksi’s removal from Antigua, where he enjoys legal and constitutional protection, “was intended to facilitate his transfer to India without having to wait on the outcome of the ongoing extradition proceedings scheduled for hearing in November this year.”
Hence, the opposition party is demanding a full investigation into the matter to ensure that justice is done in respect of “the obvious collaboration between the governments of Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda and India” to undermine the judicial process.
Choksi is wanted in India on bank fraud charges, criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, and money laundering.
