Mehul Choksi moves Delhi HC over Netflix's 'Bad Boy Billionaires'
Fugitive diamond merchant Mehul Choksi on Wednesday moved the Delhi High Court against an upcoming Netflix docuseries. Choksi approached the court seeking a preview of the docuseries titled 'Bad Boy Billionaires' which focuses on India's most infamous tycoons. The investigative docuseries notably features a segment on Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi, the fugitive diamantaire. Here are more details.
Choksi's lawyer Vijay Aggarwal told the court that he is not seeking a stay on the docuseries, but asking for a preview to be shown. He submitted that the series could affect the ongoing probe in the fraud case involving Choksi. Appearing for Netflix, Neeraj Kishan Kaul said the series only has a two-minute piece on Nirav Modi which mentions Choksi.
Further, Kaul told the Delhi HC that there is no regulation of content on the OTT platform. A single-judge Delhi HC bench of Justice Navin Chawla adjourned the matter till Friday.
Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi are accused in the Punjab National Bank fraud case. According to a charge-sheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation in May, Modi siphoned off funds to the tune of Rs. 6,498.20 crore using fraudulent Letters of Undertaking (LoUs), while Choksi allegedly swindled Rs. 7,080.86 crore. An extradition request has been moved for Choksi from Antigua.
Nirav—who also fled India with his wife Ami—is currently lodged in a jail in the United Kingdom. He was arrested in London in March 2019 and has been fighting an extradition request to India. Meanwhile, Interpol Global issued a red notice against Ami on Tuesday.
Bad Boy Billionaires is set to be released on September 2. Netflix's description of the series states: "This investigative docuseries explores the greed, fraud, and corruption that built up—and ultimately brought down—India's most infamous tycoons." The poster for the upcoming series features Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, Subrata Roy, and Byrraju Ramalinga Raju, whose lives the series will focus on.
