Mehul Choksi moves Delhi high court against Netflix documentary ‘Bad Boy Billionaires’
The Enforcement Directorate has charged Ami Modi for conspiring and money laundering with her husband Nirav Modi apart from Choksi and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
Fugitive Indian businessman Mehul Choksi on Wednesday approached the Delhi high court against streaming platform Netflix’s upcoming web series ‘Bad Boy Billionaires’.
Choksi’s lawyer Vijay Aggarwal says that he is not seeking a stay on the documentary but he is seeking that he be shown the preview.
Senior advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul, who appeared for Netflix, said that the documentary has a two-minute piece on Nirav Modi where Choksi has been mentioned. He also said that that there is no regulation of content on the OTT platform.
The court then adjourned the matter till Friday.
The petition filed by lawyer Naman Joshi cited precedents where the courts had protected the accused from media trials including by restraining release of certified motion pictures to ensure that the accused’s right to a free and fair trial and presumption of innocence is not rendered naught before the court considers the accused’s defense and his ultimate innocence or guilt.
The poster released by Netflix shows Choksi’s nephew and fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi, Subrata Roy (of the Sahara Group), now defunct Kingfisher Airlines chairman Vijay Mallya and Ramalinga Raju (former chairman and CEO of Satyam Computer Services).
“This investigative docuseries explores the greed, fraud and corruption that built up - and ultimately brought down - India’s most infamous tycoons,” Netflix has described the series.
Choksi, along with Nirav Modi and his wife Ami, have fled from India. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has charged Ami Modi for conspiring and money laundering with her husband Nirav Modi apart from Choksi and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The Interpol global issued a red notice against Ami on Tuesday.
Nirav Modi (49), is currently lodged in a UK jail after being arrested in London in March, 2019 and is currently fighting extradition to India. He has been declared a fugitive economic offender by a Mumbai court early this year and the court had also ordered confiscation of his assets.
The ED has already confiscated about Rs 329 crore of his linked properties.
The businessman, Choksi and others are being probed by the ED on money laundering charges in connection with an over US $2 billion alleged bank fraud at a Punjab National Bank (PNB) branch in Mumbai.
The Centre on Tuesday said that PNB has informed the Ministry of Corporate Affairs that it has received US $3.25 million (Rs 24.33 crore) as the first tranche of recoveries in fugitive Nirav Modi case from the USA.
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