I can take out knife from my stomach: Ghosh

Fraudster Amarendra Nath Ghosh, who had swallowed a eight-centimetre knife three years ago in a bid to prevent his extradition to India, admitted on Tuesday that he can take it out anytime he wants. 

"I have no problem at all with the knife inside. I can take it out with yoga whenever I want," said Ghosh in Kolkata on Tuesday. 

"I do yoga daily and lead a normal life, I feel no problem at all," he added nonchalantly.

Ghosh is accused of defrauding nationalised banks of over Rs 27 crore. He is also accused of defrauding the island nation of Vanuatu by US$300 million (about Rs 12.3 crore) and toppling the government.

But Ghosh was in a jovial mood on Tuesday, as his younger sister tied a rakhi on his wrist. "It is nice to meet my sister on Rakhi Purnima," he said. Ghosh added that he had given yoga lessons to convicts during his five-year stay in a German jail.

When queried about how he felt about coming back to India after so many years, Ghosh said, "it felt good on landing at Delhi."

The 46-year old Ghosh, whose extradition was ordered in 2003, was brought in a special Indian Air Force plane from Munich on Monday after the German authorities cleared the formalities to take him back to India.

The aircraft was virtually turned into an "air ambulance" with three doctors from government hospitals in Delhi accompanying Ghosh along with three officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation.

But sources said that the accused showed no signs of discomfort during the flight from Munich to New Delhi on Monday and then to Kolkata on Tuesday.