‘Everything practically over,’ says Delhi HC on PNB scam co-accused Mehul Choksi’s plea to pre-screen Netflix series

The Delhi High Court said on Wednesday that with the release of Netflix docuseries ‘Bad Boy Billionaires’, the plea by Mehul Choksi, an accused in the Rs 13,500-crore PNB fraud case, for its pre-screening remained “an academic exercise” as everything was “practically over”. A bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh further observed that there was no urgency in the matter, the view firmly supported by Netflix.

Senior advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul, appearing for Netflix, said that three of the four episodes of the series have already been released worldwide. The fourth episode pertaining to B Ramalinga Raju was stayed by a court in Andhra Pradesh and the matter was still pending adjudication there, Kaul told the bench. He said there was only a two-minute reference to Choksi, as the uncle of Nirav Modi, in the entire series and no case of violation of the fundamental right to a fair trial was made out. Advocate Vijay Aggarwal, appearing for Choksi, however opposed the contentions of Netflix. The court, thereafter, listed the matter for hearing on February 12.