MUMBAI: Businessman Mehul Choksi, an absconding accused wanted in connection of a Rs 13,000 crore bank fraud, may return to India to record his statement in three months provided his health permits him, his lawyer said on Saturday.
The lawyer told a special PMLA court here that the 59-year-old had left India in January for medical treatment in the United States and now, he is not in a position to record his statement.
"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 while appearing before the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court.
The lawyer also said that they have always replied to all questions by the court on time.
The PMLA court was hearing the Enforcement Directorate's request to declare Choksi a "fugitive" under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act.
Choksi and his nephew, 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.
Efforts are on to extradite them.