Mehul Bhai’s Antigua passport, courtesy NaMo
The Congress on Wednesday saw link in absconding Mehul Choksi, whom PM Modi addressed as 'Hamare Mehul Bhai', getting Antigua's passport, three months after Narendra Modi met its Prime Minister.
"Absconding diamond merchant Nirav Modi, i.e. Chhota Modi#2 globetrotting and Mehul Choksi gets an Antigua passport after visiting China, Belgium, UK, US, UAE and Hong Kong, while investigation agencies like CBI/ED didn't get a Red Corner notice issued against him," Congress MP Prof Rajeev Gowda and national media panelist Prof Gourav told a Press conference here.
They said the Modi government is hurriedly trying to hide behind the ‘Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill’ as a face saving exercise after criticism from all sides on its failure to fight against the ‘black money.’
Alleging that wide legal loopholes are left out in the hurriedly brought Bill to get it struck down by the court constitutionally, they said nothing worthwhile shall remain in the Bill which is rather in no way better than the existing law.
Prof Gowda said PM Modi and the BJP always in the past used to refer to SNB while quoting the Swiss Bank data and so "why is the finance minister now relying on BIS?"
He said the BIS data does not include the non-deposit liabilities like mutual funds, bonds, debentures, etc of Swiss Banks towards the Indian nationals.
The two professors also questioned Goyal for "deliberately" omitting a vital statistics from the same BIS database that loans and deposits (non-banking claims) had increased to Rs 3543 cr in Q1, 2018 from Q4 2017 balance of Rs 2889 crore, i.e. a whopping 23% increase.
Accusing Finance Minister Piyush Goyal flashing "new statistics" that are rather "newer lies" to mislead the people, they said he cannot falsify the Swiss National Bank (SNB) annual data showing the Indians' deposits in the Swiss banks going up by 50% in four years by flaunting a letter from the Bank of International Settlements (BIS).
They said the BIS website www.bis.org, http://www.bis.org clearly states in its disclaimer that "it does not warrant or guarantee the accuracy, completeness or fitness for purpose of any information or material on this website."
Reminding PM Modi of his promise to bring back Rs 80 lakh crore "black money" stashed abroad, they said black money doesn't move in a direct manner from India to Swiss, but it moves via various tax heavens like Cayman Islands and Hong Kong and so it will be reflected in the BIS data as a liability towards Cayman Island, a British overseas territory, or towards Hong Kong. Both fugitives Nirafm Modi and Mehul Choksi also went to Hong Kong, UAE, etc, they added.