ED offers to provide air ambulance with medical experts to bring Mehul Choksi back
New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday rejected a plea by fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi that he should be questioned in Antigua because of his health condition and said it can arrange air ambulance with medical experts to bring him back to India for interrogation in connection with the PNB fraud case.
Choksi, who is an accused in the case, has taken refuge in the Caribbean island nation of Antigua.
He has approached the Bombay High Court and said that he is willing to join investigation if his questioning was held in Antigua or via through video conferencing in the light of his medical condition.
But the ED rejected his plea and said that he has to return to India for questioning.
"Taking a humanitarian approach, the ED is ready to provide an expert medical team along with an air ambulance to bring the petitioner (Choksi) from Antigua to India under the proper medical supervision," the ED said in its counter-affidavit filed in the Bombay High Court.
Choksi has also said that he has left India for his medical treatment abroad and not to avoid prosecution in the case.
Countering his submission, the ED told the court that the best medical facilities are available in India and would be provided to Choksi if he returns to India.
The ED said that the agency''s intention has never been to play with the health or life of any person, may he be an accused.
Choksi absconded after the Rs 14,000-crore PNB fraud came to light in January last year, whereby the primary accused were diamantaires Nirav Modi and Choksi himself.
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PM's silence on Kharge's insult by Himanta is his consent: Rahul
New Delhi (PTI): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said the use of "derogatory language" against party chief Mallikarjun Kharge by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is an insult to the entire SC/ST community, and the silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the matter "is not his helplessness, but his consent".
"If the prime minister sees an attack on the dignity of crores of Dalits in the country and does not speak up - he is not only shirking his responsibility, but is also a party to that insult," Gandhi said in a post in Hindi on X.
Gandhi said the use of "vulgar and derogatory language" by Sarma against Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Kharge "is entirely condemnable, shameful, and unacceptable".
"Kharge ji is a senior and popular Dalit leader of the country - his experience, stature, and prestige are unparalleled. Insulting him is not an insult to one individual alone, but also to crores of people from the SC-ST community in this country," he posted.
This, he said, just reflected the "old and premeditated mindset" of the BJP-RSS and was nothing new, the leader of opposition in Lok Sabha said.
"Whether it is the insult to Babasaheb Ambedkar, belittling Dalit leaders, or personal attacks on representatives of the SC-ST community - the history of BJP and RSS bears witness that whenever a Dalit leader speaks the truth, they stoop to humiliate him," he posted.
"This is their ideology, this is their true character and face," he added.
Posing a direct question to the PM, he asked, "do you support Himanta Sarma's use of this language? Your silence is not helplessness, it is consent."
Sarma earlier hit out at Kharge, claiming that he was "speaking like a madman" due to old age, after the latter put the onus on central agencies to probe the charges made against the Assam chief minister.
Slamming the Congress chief, Sarma said, "Kharge is ageing and is speaking like a pagal (madman)."
