POLICE COMMISSIONER RODNEY ASSERTS THAT NO LOCAL OFFICERS WERE INVOLVED IN ALLEGED ABDUCTION OF MEHUL CHOKSI
Commissioner of Police Atlee Rodney says he has no information to substantiate Mehul Choksi’s claim that he was forcibly removed from Antigua on Sunday, May 23, and taken to Dominica.
According attorney Wayne Marsh, Choksi reported that he was kidnapped by persons whose voices he recognized to be Indian and Antiguan, and claimed they were law-enforcement officers.
However, speaking on State television, Thursday night, May 27, Rodney says those claims have not been verified, and he denies that local police were involved in Choksi’s alleged abduction.
As residents continue to speculate about who took Choksi to Dominica, all Rodney would say is that Dominican officials advised that the Indian man had arrived there, via boat, on the northern side of the island.
The Commissioner says that local Police will continue to dialogue with their counterparts in Dominica in an attempt to get to the bottom of this matter.
Meanwhile, Rodney confirms that, following the Missing Person Report made by Choksi’s relatives, a search was mounted for him. Subsequently the Police received information from Dominica that someone fitting the missing man’s description and going by his name had been spotted there.
Accordingly, the authorities in Dominica were provided with information from Antigua, and this was used to confirm Choksi’s identity.
His attorneys reported, on Thursday, that Choksi appeared to have been beaten since his eyes were swollen and he bore bruises and burn marks about his body.
A High Court judge in Dominica is hearing a case of habeas corpus, this morning, filed by Choksi’s lawyers. The judge is also expected to deal with other matters pertaining to the Indian man’s likely deportation.
