Mehul Choksi’s lawyer Vijay Aggarwal faces additional rape allegation in London

Indian fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi’s lawyer Vijay Aggarwal faced an allegation of rape on Thursday, a UK court was told. Notably, he was already behind the bars in London after his arrest last month on charges of sexual assault and now this additional allegation has given this case new direction.

He was presented before Justice Nathaniel Rudolf at Southwark Crown Court with four counts of sexual assault for a plea and trail preaparation hearing. Along with his, his assistant Manpreet Kaur was also appeared in the court due to the charges of intentionally encouraging or assisting sexual assault.

The two defendants appeared in court only to confirm their identities and are expected to remain in custody until the start of their trial on March 15, 2027, unless they are granted bail before then.

During Thursday’s hearing, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) requested an adjournment until next month before filing an indictment, citing the “complex” nature of the police investigation.

CPS barrister Oliver Weetch told the court that the case involved an ongoing investigation into a series of alleged sexual offences involving three complainants. He said the “complexity of the case and ongoing inquiries” pointed to at least one additional complainant alleging sexual intercourse, as well as the possibility of “other participants and/or complainants.”

Representing Aggarwal, barrister Sasha Wass described him as a man of “exemplary good character” and told the court that he had been held at Wandsworth Prison in south-west London for almost a month.

Wass asked the CPS to urgently provide the defence with a written document setting out the charges against Aggarwal, the grounds for opposing his bail and the current status of the police investigation. She said the information was necessary for the defence to make a “meaningful application for bail.”

However, Judge Rudolf said he was “not minded” to grant the CPS’ request to adjourn the proceedings until October 2. Instead, he set September 23 as the deadline for the indictment to be filed, along with the information requested by the defence.

Kaur’s barrister, Catherine Drummond, also described her client as a woman of “exemplary good character.” She argued that Kaur was being “prejudiced” by the delay in finalising the charges and by what she described as “vague objections” to her bail application.

Judge Rudolf told the pair that the court was not yet in a position to record their pleas of guilty or not guilty.

He also issued the defendants with the court’s standard warnings regarding additional sanctions if they fail to attend future hearings. They were given until February 13, 2027, to submit a defence statement through their lawyers setting out their respective cases.

Earlier in the hearing, the judge approved a request allowing members of Aggarwal’s family and Kaur’s husband to attend the proceedings remotely from India.

Aggarwal, 57, a prominent advocate, and Kaur, 41, were arrested on August 11 at a property on Brick Street in London’s affluent Mayfair district in connection with alleged sexual offences said to have occurred on May 26 and August 9.

Aggarwal has been charged with four counts of sexual assault, while Kaur faces two counts of intentionally encouraging or assisting the commission of an either-way offence, namely sexual assault.

Following their arrests, the Metropolitan Police said that “two women who reported the sexual assaults continue to be supported by specialist officers.”

The property at 29 Brick Street is listed online as a “Mayfair Residence Townhouse,” comprising multi-storey luxury apartments available for rent.