Mehul Choksi Not Fit To Travel: Counsel To Court

Mehul Choksi's counsel told a special Enforcement Directorate (ED) court in Mumbai on Saturday, November 17 that his client was medically unfit to travel from Antigua to India to record his statement.

Sanjay Abbot, Choksi's counsel, told the court, "Presently he is not medically fit to travel. So his statement can either be recorded through video conferencing or ED officers can go to Antigua and record his statement or wait for three months if his conditions improve, he will come back to record his statement."

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The court was hearing the Enforcement Directorate's application to declare Choksi as a 'fugitive economic offender.'On November 6 this year, Deepak Kulkarni, an associate of fugitive businessman Choksi, was arrested by the ED in Kolkata upon his arrival from Hong Kong.

Kulkarni was the director of Choksi's dummy firm in Hong Kong. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the ED had earlier issued a lookout circular against him.

Earlier in September 2018, Choksi had said that all allegations leveled against him by the ED were "false and baseless." Calling himself a "soft target in a small country," Choksi had said that he was undergoing media trial in connection with the alleged USD 2 billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud scam.

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Choksi also held the public sector bank PNB responsible for misinforming the probe agencies, adding that it was unprecedented how his company came to a complete standstill without thorough investigation.