Commissioner chides blogger for unfounded allegations made against police officer and magistrate in relation to Choksi case
Commissioner of Police Atlee Rodney has issued a stern warning to Internet blogger Kenneth Rijock to desist from his misleading and unprofessional behaviour with regard to an article about Indian businessman Mehul Choksi.
Commissioner Rodney is also categorically denying all claims of misconduct on the part of a senior policeman in relation to ongoing investigations involving the Indian national, who is now an Antiguan citizen.
Rodney’s statement comes as Rijock, in a January 13 online article from The Economic Times of India, makes certain allegations against the officer and a local magistrate.
Commissioner Rodney says it is most unfortunate that Rijock has made several false statements without ascertaining the facts and which could bring the Police Force into disrepute.
“The entire blog is false with inadequate or no research of the facts and has a malicious purpose and ought not to have been posted,” Rodney declares.
He states that the Force has no interest in assisting Choksi to avoid extradition from Antigua and Barbuda, as is being alleged by Rijock. Additionally, the commissioner says, the law-enforcement agency has no power to do so.
In the article, Rijock alleges that an inspector of police has been bribed by the businessman and claims that the two “have been meeting at the Al Porto Restaurant at Jolly Harbour.”
However, the Commissioner says that only two engagements have been held between Choksi and the senior officer: in August 2021 and June 2022, as part of the investigation into Choksi’s claims that he was kidnapped from Antigua and transported against his will to Dominica.
Rodney notes that these two interviews were not conducted at the restaurant, as Rijock claims, but at Choksi’s office upstairs the same building and in the presence of his attorney.
Rijock has also accused a magistrate of conspiring with the police inspector to interfere with INTERPOL’s efforts to detain Choksi for extradition to India.
However, Commissioner Rodney points out that the only connection between the policeman and the magistrate named was to secure a warrant, requesting that INTERPOL issue Red Notices for three foreign persons who, Choksi claims, were participants in his kidnapping.
Those Red Notices were approved and issued by INTERPOL, Rodney says.
“It is most regrettable that, without offering any proof whatsoever, Rijock has included judges and law-enforcement agencies in allegations of bribery by Choksi, obviously to delay his extradition to India,” Rodney says in a formal statement.
The businessman has challenged his extradition in the High Court, and Rodney notes that Antigua and Barbuda is a democratic nation in which the rule of law prevails.
Accordingly, under this country’s Constitution, Choksi has the right to initiate such legal proceedings, and only the court can order his extradition by judicial process, the Commissioner says.
