Fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi goes missing in Antigua: Lawyer

Fugitive diamond merchant Mehul Choksi is understood to have gone missing in Antigua and Barbuda with the police launching a manhunt to trace him since Sunday, local media outlets reported.

Mehul Choksi's lawyer, Vijay Aggarwal, confirmed to news agency ANI that he is missing and that his family, and the island nation's police, are looking for him.

Local media reports said Choksi, who had taken the citizenship of the Caribbean island nation, was seen driving in the southern area of the island on Sunday.

According to ANI, Choksi left his home on Monday evening to go for dinner at a well-known restaurant in the southern part of the island and was never seen again. His vehicle was discovered in Jolly Harbour later in the evening, but no sign of him, Antiguan media reported.

Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi are wanted for allegedly siphoning off Rs 13,500 crore of public money from the state-run Punjab National Bank.