Lawyer tells court Mehul Choksi may return to India in 3 months if medically fit

Fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi, wanted in a Rs 13,000 crore bank fraud, may return to India in three months "if his condition gets better", his lawyer said.

The lawyer told a Mumbai court on Saturday that Mehul Choksi is not in a position to record his statement. The 59-year-old had claimed he left India in January for medical treatment in the US.

"There is one option and according to that, investigation can be done through video conferencing. Officer from India can go to Antigua in order to investigate him. The third option is that if his condition gets better in three months and if his doctors allow him to, then he will come back to India to join investigation," lawyer Sanjay Abbot said.

The Special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court was hearing the Enforcement Directorate's request to declare him a "fugitive" under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act. Efforts are on to extradite Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi to India.

Appearing before the court, Mehul Choksi's lawyer said that they have always replied to all questions by the court on time.

Mehul Choksi and his nephew, celebrity jeweller Nirav Modi, are being sought by multiple investigating agencies after it was revealed that the two extracted crores in loans from banks abroad on the basis of fake guarantees in the name of Punjab National Bank, India's second largest state-owned bank. The two fled India in January.

The Enforcement Directorate had sought to declare Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi "fugitive economic offenders" and clearance to confiscate their assets worth Rs. 3,500 crore.

The businessman was granted citizenship of Antigua and Barbuda last year and he took the oath of allegiance to that country on January 15.