‘Cong misleading people on fraud’
Sitharaman questions Rahul Gandhi’s presence at a promotional event organised by the jewellery designer
NEW DELHI: The BJP on Saturday turned the heat on the Congress by asking it to explain why its current president Rahul Gandhi was present for a promotional event in 2013 organised by diamond merchant Nirav Modi, who is accused of defrauding Punjab National Bank (PNB).
The ruling party also demanded to know why the Congress-led UPA government sought the resignation of a whistleblower who had flagged concerns about giving loans to Modi’s Gitanjali Gems.
Addressing mediapersons, Union defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the Congress was misleading people by deflecting allegations of bank fraud that took place during their tenure.
“In June 2013, LIC took a 4% stake in Gitanjali gems, the finance ministry questioned it. The ministry said the company has been questioned for malpractice and also suspended from doing business in NSE for almost six months. On September 13, Rahul Gandhi participated in a promotional event for this group and on September 15, a proposal for restructuring the loan and giving additional loan up to ₹1,550 crore goes to Allahabad bank,” the minister said.
She also pointed out that Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi’s wife Anita and his son were directors in the company Adwait Holdings that had given its premises in Mumbai’s Lower Parel on lease to Modi’s company Firestar Diamond.
Singhvi, however, refuted the charge and said his family had no links with Gitanjali or Modi’s companies. “Nirav Modi’s company was a tenant of a Kamala Mills property owned by Adwait Holdings in which my wife and sons are directors. Adwait Holdings owns a commercial property in Parel, as it does elsewhere, which was rented by Firestone many years ago. Neither Adwait nor my family has any interest with Modi or Firestone. Last August, Firestone gave a notice to quit tenancy and vacated the Kamala Mills premises in December 2017,” Singhvi said.
The BJP also asked the grand old party to explain why whistleblower Dinesh Dubey was asked to resign after he raised concerns over issuing loans for Modi’s companies with the then finance secretary. “His (Dubey’s) dissent was not put in the minutes of the meeting. We do not know what transpired at the meeting but at the end of the day, he (Dubey) was asked to put in his papers and the loan was sanctioned finally,” Sitharaman said.
The minister said Dubey’s resignation was reminiscent of a similar episode during 1975-76, when the then chairman of the State Bank of India was asked to resign. “The original sin was indeed committed in 2011, with help from delinquent officials. Letters of undertaking (LoU) with currency of 90 days were not put into the core banking system; they were with the delinquent officer who kept files under his control. Till May 2017, the LOUs kept getting evergreen,” she said.
The minister also asserted that the government was walking the talk on taking action against the corrupt and though Modi may have fled the country, the government was prompt in taking action, such as attaching his properties and revoking his passport. “We are not conspiring to help scamsters flee the country, BJP government is catching them instead,” she added.