PM Narendra Modi knew about Nirav Modi's plan to flee India, was informed by I-T dept: Congress

The Congress alleged that Prime Minister Modi-led central government was informed by the Income Tax department about the fraud committed by Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi eight months before they left India.

The Congress party on Monday launched yet another scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, accusing them of knowing well in advance about economic offenders Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi planning to leave the country.

Addressing a press conference in the national capital, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala alleged that Prime Minister Modi-led central government was informed by the Income Tax department about the fraud committed by Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi eight months before they left India.

“Information that Nirav Modi is about to flee the country after fraud of Rs 23,000 crore was there with Modi government through I-T Dept report eight months before Nirav Modi ran away. If Modi ji and Jaitley ji knew about Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, then how did they run away?” asked the Congress spokesperson.

Inactions of Top echelons of Modi Govt – PM Modi & FM Jaitley are out in open!

Despite being well aware about ‘dirty dealings’, of Nirav Modi & Mehul Choksi in ‘₹26,306 Cr PNB Bank Loot Scam’ for more than 8 months, Modi Govt provided fugitives a ‘free pass to ‘flee India’! pic.twitter.com/UChVnIRUgh — Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) December 3, 2018

“From June 2017, when this report came, till May 2018, when all these fugitives ran away, Sushil Chandra was chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), under which Income Tax Department works. What was his role in helping Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi run away?” Surjewala further said.

Nirav Modi has been absconding since the alleged Punjan National Bank fraud, by far the highest in the country in terms of value, came to light early this year and an Interpol arrest warrant was recently notified against him even as India is working to get him extradited from the United Kingdom, where he was last reported to have been based.

ED has also filed a charge sheet against him alleging that he laundered and diverted over Rs 6,400 crore of bank funds abroad to dummy companies that were under his and his families' control

Nirav Modi, his uncle Mehul Choksi and others are being probed under various criminal laws after the fraud came to light this year following a complaint by the Punjab National Bank (PNB) that they allegedly cheated the nationalised bank to the tune of over Rs 13,000 crore, with the purported involvement of a few employees of the bank.

(With PTI Inputs)