Congress Accuses PM Modi of Protecting Nirav Modi

In a game of political finger-pointing, the Indian National Congress has squarely laid blame on the Modi government for absconding billionaire jeweller, Nirav Modi, being able to travel across international borders in spite of having his passport revoked. Seeking an explanation, and through a statement made by former Union Minister, Rajeev Shukla, the Congress went on to add that the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) would need to provide answers for ow Nirav Modi and members of his family have managed to travel in spite of global investigative agencies, such as Interpol, also being alerted to the financial scandal that was perpetrated by them.

Even though Nirav Modi’s passport was revoked in February, Interpol informed law enforcement agencies that he, his wife, is brother and his uncle, also part of the scam, had travelled to three different countries on four separate occasions thereafter, between the 15th and 31st of March, 2018. Here too questions were raised about the delay with which the MEA moved to revoke the passports. Rajiv Shukla questioned the government directly, “The MEA only revoked his passport on February 24. Why did it take 54 days to revoke his passport? Was the Modi Government aiding and abetting the escape of Nirav Modi and facilitating his escape to the farthest point from India’s shores?”

Adding to this revelation, Rajiv Shukla went on to add that although Nirav Modi had left India on the 1st of January this year, at which time the details of this case had not yet come into the public domain, he had been seen in photographs with Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was in Switzerland during the World Economic forum that was held later that month. While no response has been issued by the government so far, both this scandal and the earlier financial fiasco involving Vijay Mallya have severely dented the confidence in India’s banking system due to an obvious lack of checks and balances that exist.