‘Bid to hide BJP’S corruption’
NEW DELHI: The Congress on Wednesday slammed the arrest of former finance minister P Chidambaram’s son Karti as “vendetta and vindictive politics” by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government to target its opponents and divert the public attention and mask the “culture of colossal corruption and cronyism flourishing unchecked” in its rule.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday arrested the 46-year-old businessman from Chennai airport in an alleged INX Media corruption case. “Puppets CBI and ED (Enforcement Directorate) are being used to distract the narrative apart from diverting and deflecting the public attention from scams to the tune of ~31,691 crore exposed over the last 10 days,” the Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala told reporters.
“However, Congress party and its leadership will not be deterred for speaking truth to the power and asking the government to hold itself accountable in the people’s court,” he added.
The CBI in 2017 named Karti as an accused along with the then INX Media promoters Peter Mukerjea and his wife Indrani and charged them with criminal conspiracy, cheating, receiving illegal gratification, influencing public servants and criminal misconduct. The CBI alleges that Karti used his influence in the finance ministry to help INX Media get approval for foreign investments from three Mauritius-based investors. His father was the finance minister then. The INX Media had allegedly received foreign investments to the tune of R305 crore in 2007-08 despite not
getting a clearance by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board.
Surjewala said the Modi government’s “mask of corruption crusader lies in shambles” with scams getting uncovered in the past 45 months and “zero action” against the fraudsters.
“Post the escape of Lalit Modi and Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi have fled the country, duping 30 banks of ₹22,606 crore and common people of an estimated ₹5,000 crore through ponzi money for gold schemes,” he said.
The arrest comes at a time when the Congress has launched an offensive against the government over the alleged ₹12,636crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud allegedly perpetuated by Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, who have both left the country. Lauding the CBI for arresting Karti, BJP MP Subramanian Swamy said the former finance minister’s son will certainly
go to jail now.
“The CBI gave Karti Chidambaram a lot of chances, but he continued to deceive them with his lies and failed to cooperate with them. That too there is overwhelming evidence against him. Now he will certainly go to jail,” he told news agency ANI.
“I am sure the charge-sheet in his case will be filed by the CBI soon. This is a great achievement for the CBI,” he added.
The BJP also said the arrest proves that “no one is above the law”. “I believe no one should consider oneself above the law of the country. The corrupt are being sent to jail under the law which is taking its own course in the matter,” party leader Sambit Patra told ANI. Snubbing the Congress party for calling Karti’s arrest a case of “vindictive politics”, Patra said, “I see no reason why any political party should cry vendetta. This is law, not vendetta”.