X-ray fails to show any knife in Indian alleged fraudster's stomach

Sep 11, 2007, 13:28 GMT

New Delhi - An X-ray conducted on Amarendra Nath Ghosh, who is accused of defrauding Indian public banks for 2.6 million dollars, did not find any eight-centimetre knife he claimed to have swallowed in Germany to stop him being extradited from there for over four years, news reports said Tuesday.

Ghosh, who had claimed that he swallowed the knife on 31 July 2003 to avoid being extradited to India, was brought back by a special Indian Air Force plane on August 27 after German authorities gave the go-ahead after five years of legal proceedings.

An X-ray test at a hospital in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata on Tuesday did not find any foreign body in the abdomen of the accused, PTI news agency quoted a jail doctor as saying.

The court in Kolkata hearing Ghosh's case agreed to his plea that another X-ray be carried out at a reputed radiological institute. The judge directed the central Bureau of Investigation to submit the fresh X-ray report on Thursday.

'German authorities had found the knife in X-rays before my extradition and the hospital here has given a different report. I pray for another check,' Ghosh told the judge.

The court refused Ghosh's plea for bail and said he would remain in CBI custody till the next hearing.