A day after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is probing 15 cases against former IPl commissioner lalit Modi, the Government is likely to tighten the screw against the man wanted by the authorities in India. The ED is likely to issue a Red Corner notice against him and authorities are expected to move the Supreme Court to revoke his passport.
Meanwhile reacting to lalit Modi’s tweet “You illegally cancelled it (Passport)”, former Finance Minister P Chidambaram asked the Centre to release the letters exchanged between him and the then British Finance Minister between 2012 and 2014 regarding lalit Modi’s residency in the UK.
On Tuesday, Jaitley had confirmed that some sort of Blue Corner ED notice was already pending against lalit Modi. The Red Corner notice will mean that UK authorities will have to decide on arresting lalit Modi and extradition proceedings will then be commenced against him.
The Centre is contemplating to move against the Delhi HC’s order to restore lalit Modi’s passport. On this issue, which falls under the domain of the Ministry of External Affairs, Jaitley had said that this was something that the passport authorities should decide.
Meanwhile, hitting out at former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, lalit Modi tweeted, “You illegally cancelled it (Passport). The High Court gave it back to me and said to your Government— No Ball.”
On his part, Chidambaram asked the Narendra Modi Government to release the letters exchanged between the former and George Osborne, the British Finance Minister between 2012 and 2014 so that all truth regarding the lalit Modi controversy would come out in the open.
Addressing a hurriedly convened Press meet at his house in Chennai following charges by lalit Modi that “Chidambaram had arm-twisted the UK Government into denying residency to him,” the former Finance Minister said the allegations by lalit Modi were laughable and do not deserve any reply.
Chidambaram said that after assuming charge as the Finance Minister on July 2012, he was briefed by the officials about the ED investigations against lalit Modi. “I was told that he was in Britain without a valid passport as his passport had been impounded by the Government. Following the request by the ED, I took up the matter with George Osborne. This issue was discussed by me and Osborne during bilateral meetings. The letters exchanged between us are the best evidence of what the UPA Government was doing in this issue,” said Chidambaram.
He also questioned the propriety of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj asking lalit Modi to approach the British Foreign Office for documents to travel abroad from london. “She could have asked lalit Modi to approach the Indian High Commission in london which could have arranged travel documents for the latter to visit Portugal. Instead of that the Indian Minister asking the British Foreign Office to arrange travel documents for Modi raises number of questions on her credibility and reputation,” said Chidambaram.
He also came down strongly on the Finance and Foreign Ministries for not appealing against the Delhi High Court Division Bench verdict which released the impounded passport of lalit Modi. “Arun Jaitley in his media briefing on Tuesday had said that there were 16 cases being investigated against Modi by the Enforcement Directorate and it had issued 15 notices against him. This proves that there were cases against him. Still, no appeal has been filed against the Delhi High Court verdict to revoke his passport. This needs to be answered by the union government,” said Chidambaram.
“Mr lalit Modi now has an Indian passport. He is an Indian passport. He is an Indian citizen subject to Indian laws. What steps has the Government taken since the issue of a fresh passport to enforce the summons issued by the EDIJ” Chidambaram asked.