Sukanta Majumdar slammed TMC MP Bapi Halder for his “gouge out eyes and break hands” remark, demanding police action against him. He also accused Mamata Banerjee of shielding those inciting violence.

Diamantaire Mehul Choksi’s arrest in Belgium is the result of a relentless pursuit by Indian agencies for over seven years and spanning three countries that faced multiple setbacks. 

The Gitanjali Group owner is accused of a Rs 12,636 crore fraud at the state-run Punjab National Bank along with his nephew Nirav Modi, his wife Ami Modi, and his brother Neeshal Modi. Sixty-five-year-old Choksi fled India in 2018, shortly before the massive fraud came to light. He flew to Antigua, where he had taken citizenship through the investment programme.

In 2021, Choksi was arrested in the Dominican Republic for illegal entry. A CBI team was rushed to the Caribbean nation to secure his custody. Choksi’s lawyers told a Dominican court that he needed to return to Antigua for treatment and assured that he would return to face trial later. After 51 days in jail, Choksi got relief from the British Queen’s Privy Council and the extradition could not proceed. He flew back to Antigua. Later, the illegal entry charges against him in the Dominican Republic were dropped.

The CBI and the Enforcement Directorate tracked him throughout this time. Last year, they learned that he was in Belgium, and they promptly alerted the agencies there, sources in the agencies said. All documents regarding the fraud case were also shared. Belgian police arrested Choksi on April 12 and found he was trying to flee to Switzerland. Choksi’s wife Preeti is a Belgian citizen. According to reports, Choksi submitted fabricated documents to get a residency card in Belgium. He also concealed that he was a citizen of India and Antigua. Earlier, in February, Choksi’s lawyer told a Mumbai court that he cannot return to India because he was in Belgium for blood cancer treatment.

The businessman also said he was ready to cooperate with Indian agencies and appear before courts through video-conferencing, but this suggestion was rejected and the agencies kept working towards his extradition. These efforts have now culminated in his arrest and Indian authorities are now working to bring him back for trial. Choksi’s legal team has said it will file for bail and oppose his extradition to India.

China said Monday that exports soared 12.4 percent year-on-year last month, beating expectations as Beijing navigated mounting trade headwinds sparked by US President Donald Trump.

The figure was more than double the 4.6 percent predicted in a Bloomberg survey, though imports during the same period fell 4.3 percent, Beijing’s General Administration of Customs said.

China’s top leaders last month set an ambitious annual growth target of around five percent, vowing to make domestic demand its main economic driver.

But its fragile recovery faces fresh problems from Trump’s trade war, with huge tariffs kicking in for most Chinese goods this month.

Beijing and Washington have been locked in a fast-moving, high-stakes game of brinkmanship since Trump launched a global tariff assault that particularly targeted Chinese imports.

Tit-for-tat exchanges have seen US levies imposed on China rise to 145 percent, and Beijing setting a retaliatory 125 percent band on US imports.

The US side appeared to dial down the pressure slightly on Friday, listing tariff exemptions for smartphones, laptops, semiconductors and other electronic products of which China is a major source.

Beijing said Monday that the United States remained the largest single overseas destination for Chinese shipments in January-March, amounting to $115.6 billion.

“The strong export data reflect frontloading of trade before the US tariffs were announced,” Zhiwei Zhang, President and Chief Economist at Pinpoint Asset Management said in a note.

“China’s exports will likely weaken in coming months as the US tariffs skyrocketed,” he added.

“The uncertainty of trade policies is extremely high.”

And the world’s second-largest economy continues to struggle with sluggish consumption and a prolonged debt crisis in its property sector.

Beijing announced a string of aggressive measures to reignite the economy last year, including cutting interest rates, cancelling restrictions on homebuying, hiking the debt ceiling for local governments and bolstering support for financial markets.

But after a blistering market rally last year fuelled by hopes for a long-awaited “bazooka stimulus”, optimism waned as authorities refrained from providing a specific figure for the bailout or fleshing out any of the pledges.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)