THE INDIAN FRAUDSTER, MEHUL CHOKSI, HAS BUT ONE CARD LEFT TO PLAY, BEFORE HE MUST FACE THE MUSIC IN HIS NATIVE INDIA

If you were wondering why MEHUL CHOKSI, India's Most-Wanted fugitive, is not in an Indian courtroom yet, he has one final appellate remedy left: the COURT OF CASSATION ( Cour de Cassation), Belgium's court of last resort, which is the country's equivalent of a Supreme Court. He has but a fifteen day window to file his appeal, which expires at the end of October; most legal observers agree that his counsel will most certainly avail himself of that final chance, albeit small, to defeat his extradition.

There is a dark backstory in the Choksi case, the unsolved puzzle regarding whether India's intelligence services, frustrated with Antigua's corrupt court system, orchestrated a failed kidnapping, versus Chokski's own scheme to flee to extradition-free Cuba, complete with altered police records; Which story is accurate? Hopefully, his pending UK civil suit will answer that. Meanwhile, we engage in watchful waiting in Brussels.