"Wasn't present in the area" says Barbara Jarabica on Mehul Choksi's alleged abduction

New Delhi: Barbara Jarabica, whose name has cropped up the in Mehul Choksi case, has said that she wasn't present in the area at the time of his alleged kidnapping. Choksi, involved in a multi-crore PNB scam, disappeared from Antigua on 23rd May only to surface in neighbouring Dominica. 

Speaking to WION, Barbara said, "On the 23rd of May, Sunday, we went to have breakfast at Carlisle Bay which is a hotel resort in South Antigua and he picked me up in Jolly Harbour." She added, "we had breakfast and conversation, coffee" and "we came back to Jolly harbour at around 11.30 or 12 o clock, this was the last time I saw him."

Recalling his conversation, she said, "He said that he is really disappointed, and can't believe that I am leaving Antigua and he was trying to convince me to stay but I told him that I will go to the airport in the afternoon, going to Dominica and will go back to Europe."

62-year-old Mehul Choksi in a complaint with the Commissioner of police of Antigua and Barbuda listed Barbara Jabarica along with others to have been involved in his alleged "kidnapping", something that hasn't been proved yet. In the 5-page complaint dated 2nd June, he said "8-10 heavily muscled men" had taken him from her house at 5.15 local time.

Barbara, in response to the WION question, said, "around 3 o'clock I left and went to the airport. He says he was kidnapped in the afternoon..its busy time, daytime and busy area and at the time I was going to the airport".

Adding, "Why would I kidnap him in the middle of the day, in the busiest time like 4 or 5 pm?" questioning, "something does not add up."

In the 30-minute conversation, Barbara gave details of her contact with Choksi since last August 2020 and knew him as "Raj". During the yearlong contact, Choksi had spoken to her many times and also gifted her a diamond ring which turned out to be fake. 

Asked if she knew about his past, she said, "now I am finding out, he lied a lot" and " introduced himself has Raj" and "wherever we went, everyone called him Raj", pointing out "if I know, what his real background...I would have never hangout with him".

She also clarified that she is not a national of any Caribbean and is a European.