After the fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi released a video message denying all charges of defrauding the PNB, the Congress on Tuesday released documents to allege complicity of Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the Finance Ministry in the escape of Nirav Modi and Choksi from the country.
Accusing the Modi Government of inaction, the party shared a number of complaints made by different people at various intervals during the last three years against the duo to the PMO and several other agencies, including Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
Furnishing proof of Modi Government’s alleged involvement in their escape, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said, ‘’On April 20 this year, after Choksi fled, PM Modi met the Antiguan President in the UK but he didn’t utter a word to send back Choksi.
This is not my words, it has been said by the Antiguan President in an interview on July 27. The Indian Government never approached them on this issue.”
The Congress also shared some documents on Twitter to claim how PMO, MEA, CBI, SEBI etc., gave a clean chit to the fraudsters and facilitated their escape from the country.
The fresh attack on the Government from the Congress came hours after fugitive Mehul Choksi released a video message denying allegations of wrongdoings by him.
According to the Congress, first a complaint on May 7, 2015, was filed to Ministry of Corporate Affairs by one Vaibhav Khuraniya and RM Green Solution Private Limited and copies of it were to PMO, ED and Serious Fraud Investigation Office. The PMO acknowledged the complaint on May 26. A couple of years later on May 3, 2017, Khuraniya also emailed the complaint to SEBI.
Thereafter, a similar complaint was filed to Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mumbai. Then another person named Digvijaysinh Jadeja filed an FIR in Ahmedabad Economic Offences Wing, Gujarat against Choksi and others for defrauding them.
“The matter went to Gujarat High Court, where Government of Gujarat was a party. Jadeja also filed an affidavit on July 20, 2016, specifically pointing out that Mehul Choksi and others owed a debt of Rs 9,872 crore to banks and are likely to escape from India,” Surjewala said sharing copies of the complaints and affidavits.
A complaint dated July 26, 2016, was also filed by one Hariprasad to PMO which has already been placed in public domain earlier, he said.
Surjewala pointed out that in a reply to a Parliament question dated July 24, 2018, PMO admitted that the first report of action against Nirav and Choksi was given to the PMO by Finance Department on March 1, 2018. Ironically, Nirav had already escaped on January 1, 2018, followed by Choksi three days later.
The Congress questioned as how the Ministry of External Affairs provided the ‘Clean Chit’ certificate for Mehul Choksi’s citizenship of Antigua in May 2017, as clearance certified that there was ‘no adverse information’ against Choksi. Antigua’s Citizenship Investment Unit (CIU) also states that SEBI gave ‘clean chit certificate’ to Mehul Choksi.
“Were there an active warrant for Choksi at the time his citizenship application was being processed, this information should have already been made available to Interpol, a notification of which would have been readily accessible by the CIU and its due diligence partners. Further, the warrant should have formed a part of the criminal records database in India and therefore declared in the police clearance certificate issued by MEA. It is now clear that Interpol gave clearance to Mehul Choksi, as CBI/ED failed to get a warrant issued against him or provide the requisite evidence to Interpol,” Surjewala said.
Congress alleged that Modi met Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne on April 20, 2018 on the sidelines of Commonwealth Heads of Govt Meeting in United Kingdom. It is thus clear that even Modi never raised the issue of Mehul Choksi during that meeting, he said.
“It is intriguing that the Modi Government permitted the Indian passport of Mehul Choksi to remain live until Feb 16, 2018, helping him escape in January 2018,” the Congress alleged.
“All the allegations labelled by the Enforcement Directorate are false and baseless. They have attached my properties illegally without there being any basis of the same,” Choksi said in the video. “The passport authority revoked my passport altogether in view of which I was immobilized. I received an email from the passport office which said that my passport has been suspended due to reasons of security threat to India.
“I sent an email to the regional passport office Mumbai requesting them to revoke the suspension of my passport. However, I did not receive any reply from them. They did not even give me any explanation to why my passport has been suspended,” he added. Choksi is one of the prime accused in the Rs 13,500-crore Punjab National Bank fraud. He was last traced to Antigua, where he has been granted citizenship.
