BJP alleges Congress links

The blame game being played between the Congress and the ruling BJP on the PNB scam since past three days acquired a new dimension on Saturday on defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman's sensational disclosure of a senior Congress leader's relationship with absconding diamond czar Nirav Modi.

So far the BJP was stressing that the scam took place in the previous UPA government while Sitharaman went a step further to accuse the Congress of making all the noise to cover up its own role even while the Congress repeatedly asked why the government allowed Nirav and his three relative accomplices flee the country before the CBI was activated.

Reiterating two other ministers' claim, Sitharaman

also told a Press conference in the BJP headquarters that "the original sin in this particular episode of Nirav Modi was committed in 2011." She, however, made a sensational claim that wife of senior Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi was a shareholder in one of Nirav Modi''s companies while other BJP leaders insisted that Singhvi had taken Nirav''s help to dispose of his "black money" after the demonetisation. Pointing out that Fire Star Diamond International Pvt Ltd. is one of the companies of Nirav Modi that he acquired from Advait Holdings and "one of the shareholders of the company is Anita Singhvi, wife of Abhishek Singhvi."

Sitharaman also alleged Congress links with the fraudster family were established on September 13, 2013 when Rahul Gandhi attended a promotional event of Gitanjali Gems group of Mehul Choksi in Delhi despite the fact that Gitanjali Gems was suspended for six months from doing business on NSE in 2013. She went on to insist that the Congress propaganda will not deter the government from getting hold of main accused Nirav as "the government has tried to get to the bottom of the situation and initiated several actions as it comes with a clear commitment to take action against the corrupt practices."