Bombay HC asks doctors to submit report regarding economic fugitive Mehul Choksi's health condition

A team of doctors from JJ Hospital, Mumbai who will be ascertaining economic offender and fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi's current health condition have been asked to submit a report that will determine if he can travel by air or not to the Bombay High Court. 

Lawyers representing Mehul Choksi were directed to submit all the latest medical reports to JJ Hospital by Monday. The hospital is due to submit its report by 9 July to the court in a sealed cover. 

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The bench directed the Counsel of Enforcement Directorate to determine whether the Interpol Red Corner notice could be relaxed for Choksi to go to Miami for necessary treatment. This comes after Choksi's lawyers claimed that the red corner notice did not permit Choksi to travel from Antigua to Miami for further treatments. The bench also directed Choksi's Counsel to ask their client as to which hospital in India would Choksi prefer for treatment if he chose to come to India. 

On March 22, Choksi had moved an application before the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court, stating his long history of heart ailment and a blood clot in the brain as the reason for not being able to appear before it. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has offered to provide an air ambulance and a team of medical experts to bring back fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi from Antigua and provide him with all necessary treatment in India. In a counter affidavit submitted before the High Court, ED has termed as "a facade" an affidavit submitted earlier this week by Choksi in which he claimed that he is unable to return to India due to persistent health problems.

The fugitive diamantaire and Nirav Modi, both absconding are main accused of defrauding India's second largest state-run bank PNB to the tune of over Rs 13,000 crore.

Choksi was granted citizenship of Antigua and Barbuda on January 15, 2018. Back in April, the extradition process of diamond jeweller Mehul Choksi had already begun in Antigua. 

The next hearing in the matter is scheduled on 10 July in the Bombay High Court. 

(With inputs from ANI)

READ | ED Offers To Provide Air Ambulance With Medical Experts To Bring Mehul Choksi From Antigua