"But if it turned out that this is just a terrible case of mistaken identity then he can always reapply. But as it currently stands, if what we're told is correct, then this guy's got serious questions to answer about not only his conduct in America, but also misleading various agencies [here]."
The Medical Council had already begun a review of its processes around Mehta's case and how he was granted registration in New Zealand, Mr Connolly said. So far it appeared the council had "ticked all our boxes" in the checking process.
"We have no evidence before us that there is any question about his medical qualifications from the states," he said, adding that staff were trained to detect fakes.
"Nothing we've seen, and nothing we have, has altered that opinion. We're aware of some concerns in Australia about some documents, but I'm told they don't seem to be around his original qualifications."
In January last year, Mehta was found to have forged signatures on medical accreditation documents with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency and the Royal Australian New Zealand College of Radiologists.
Mr Connolly also said there had been no concerns about his behaviour at work, and said it was unlikely he would have had close or unsupervised contact with children.
"I can say we've received no complaints, either pre-dating all this publicity or in the last few days, from anyone with concerns," he said.
"As a radiologist he may not have had as much direct patient contact as you would expect from a GP or surgeon, it's just the nature of his job. And in recent years, my understanding is that he has been physically based in Australia and delivering tele radiology services here."
Mr Connolly said he felt confident that if police or Immigration New Zealand had discovered anything of an criminal nature during his citizenship application in 2008 both agencies would have informed the Medical Council.
"We would expect to have been told, and we believe our relationship and understanding with the police is such that we would have been told," he said.
He believed the fault lay on the US side, suspecting his charge had not been made public or disclosed to the medical authority there. The council had received certificates of good standing from both the Texas and California state medical council equivalents, he said.
"I can only surmise that for some reason that information never appears to have become a matter of public record in terms of anything the police or Immigration or us could identify."
Mehta was employed by the Tairawhiti District Health Board (DHB) from around 2006 or 2007 until earlier this year as an off-site radiologist consultant.
Yesterday a Canterbury DHB spokeswoman confirmed Mehta also worked for Canterbury Medical Imaging -- now Canterbury Community Radiology.
