Good topic and excellent suggestions and additions.
The term 'chaqu' is yet another seemingly generic term for 'knife' from apparant Turkish etymology, which according to Egerton is applied to these 'clasp' knives. The clasp knife itself is better known colloquially as a folding knife, more modernly jack or pocket knives in the smaller size utility knives.
Pant (p.155) describes most chaqus in India as having been English products from as early as 17th c. AD. Such clasp knives were being produced in Sheffield around 1650s reaching larger scale production c.1700. With the English East India Co. being formed in 1600, and arranging for factories for commerce established (Surat 1637, Ft.St.George 1639) it seems quite plausible that such knives may have been present in these contact areas in India with English sailors. This would correspond well with Pant's suggestion of clasp knives in India as early as the 17th century.
More familiar however are the navajas of Andalusian Spain and thier immense notariety with the Gypsies or Gitanos, whose origins interestingly come from regions in North India. The folding razor and folding knife accordingly are well known in pre Roman times in Spain, as well as more widely in the Roman Empire (the term 'navaja' comes from Lat. novacula =razor). This offers the suggestion that the concept of a folding knife, certainly as an implement, must have been known in areas of Roman contact in early times. The idea of a folding knife as a weapon did not really become effective until the locking devices on navajas in the 18th century as far as I know.
Naturally, this does not provide examples as requested for resolving whether this is an Indo-Persian origin for the weapon, but simply offers plausible thoughts for when and how it may have developed in India. Personally my own impression is that despite being known as a novelty, such knives likely did not gain popularity until influx of commercial contact increased the awareness of them.
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