New Delhi/Chandigarh, Feb 13: The Congress on Sunday targeted the Modi government over the Rs 22,842-crore bank loan fraud case of Gujarat-based ABG Shipyard, alleging complicity of those sitting in the highest echelons of power, but the BJP hit back saying the loans were given to the accused company during the UPA rule.
On February 7, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) booked ABG Shipyard Limited, its former chairman and managing director Rishi Kamlesh Agarwal and others for allegedly cheating a consortium of lenders led by the ICICI Bank in the biggest such bank fraud. The opposition party questioned why the government “took five years” after the liquidation proceedings of ABG Shipyard to lodge an FIR in connection with the alleged duping of 28 banks.
The government-owned State Bank of India, which is the complainant and one of the affected banks, however, issued a statement denying any delay, saying it has been diligently following the case with the CBI after the forensic audit report. Congress general secretary and chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala alleged that the Modi government is running a “loot-and-escape” scheme for bank fraudsters and cited Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, Lalit Modi, Vijay Mallya, Jatin Mehta, Chetan and Nitin Sandesara, and several others who fled the country after duping Indian banks. He said Agarwal is among the “new gems” in the list.
“Complicity, collusion and connivance of those sitting in the highest echelons of power in the Modi government is writ large in India’s biggest bank fraud involving ABG Shipyard and its promoters,” Surjewala alleged at a press conference here.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also alleged that bank frauds to the tune of Rs 5.35 lakh crore have taken place during the BJP government and that these are good days only for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “friends”.
Countering the allegations, BJP spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Syed Zafar Islam said that for the Congress to attack the government over the case is like a thief blaming the police for the crime. He said all these loans were given before 2014 and had turned non-performing assets (NPA) under the Congress-led UPA dispensation whose functionaries, the BJP leader alleged, were “hand in glove” with the promoters of the company. Due process was followed all these years and the BJP government has identified the fraud, he said.
“That is why we have taken this action,” he said, referring to the CBI case in the matter.
“The Congress is brazening it out. Its government ran the ‘phone banking’ scam with its senior functionaries forcing banks to sanction loans after accepting commissions from these promoters.
“They are fully responsible for the fraud as they were hand in glove with all promoters. Our government has detected these frauds,” the BJP leader said. (PTI)
