The Nirav Modi fraud has rocked the country and people who have deposited their savings in banks. The saving grace for all depositors has been the fact that Punjab National Bank is a public sector bank and it is fully backed by the government. The swift action against the fraudster’s assets has also been a positive sign for the public.
Though political parties criticised Modi government for the Nirav Modi’s escape, the government has raided and seized gold and diamond worth 5100 crores from 17 locations associated with the businessman. We had reported about the details of the raid and the PNB fraud yesterday.
Conspiracy theorists spread doubts and misinformation about the raids
However popular YouTuber Dhruv Rathee, who has been a vocal critic of Modi government felt that the ‘5100 crores’ figure that emerged from the raid was ‘fishy.’ He is under the false impression that valuing gold and diamonds is same as counting currency that was collected during demonetisation.
Something is very fishy!
They can count 5100 Cr worth of gold, diamond jewelry supposedly raided from Nirav Modi assets within 1 day, but RBI still hasn’t counted demonetized notes since over 1 year.
Is this a fake raid for PR?
Is it meant to falsely manage public perception? https://t.co/R3imf1bZ52— Dhruv Rathee (@dhruv_rathee) February 16, 2018
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal spread this illogical tweet in order to spread doubts in the minds of people.
Another journalist with ‘Moneylife‘ claimed that the assets were valued at just 100 crores.
Small factoid for anyone who believes CBI and DRI seizes 5100 crore of jewellery today – if #niravmodi had that much in assets, he would not need to do a fake LOU scam! I hear value is under Rs100 cr. There must be limits to fekugiri https://t.co/nYkX5FlvyW
— Sucheta Dalal (@suchetadalal) February 15, 2018
Twitter users slam conspiracy theorists propaganda
However, such claims were slammed by Twitterati as they were illogical and politically motivated. One of the Twitter users remarked that these conspiracy theorists did not figure out things that were obvious to second-year finance students.
Coz people can’t use personal “non-declared” assets to avail bank credits for business. A second year finance student would know that, bt then…it’s hard to expect such people to know that or even care about that if they knew how it works. https://t.co/eGucqe25B9
— Shyamal K (@snkesharia) February 16, 2018
Another user remarked as to how the comparison between demonetisation and ED raids was absurd.
Because counting cash and assets of 1.3 billion people from whole India is as same as counting assets and cash of a single person. Another reason why supporting Kejriwal is injurious to your mental health. pic.twitter.com/JPbyHtCTEz
— MBBS Smoking Skills (@SmokingSkills_) February 16, 2018
Ankit Jain, Twitter user who is in the jewels and diamonds business explained that it is easy it value the items that were raided yesterday.
Nirav Modi auctioned a 50 crore Necklace at Christies. He is known for his expensive and rare jewellery and diamonds, if it is just gold then it takes 30 seconds to value a ornament and obviously raw gold will be available at his workshop so it will take less than 30 seconds. https://t.co/VBPiHCvsuI
— अंकित जैन (@indiantweeter) February 16, 2018
Several others debunked ‘conspiracy’ theories and ‘doubts’ of propagandists.
1528000 crore/5100 crore = 300 days. That’s what it would take to count demontised currency by your logic. I know that you are too desperate to find something fishy and may be there is something fishy but all that I wanted to tell you is that you don’t know 2nd class mathematics. https://t.co/pw3IG8GRWI
— Shyam Simaria (@Shyam_Simaria) February 16, 2018
This idiot needs to know that the seized goods were valued as it is already had valuer certificate https://t.co/FfaXFzW5b7
— shubhaankarC (@ShubhaankarC) February 16, 2018
Yeah. Because 8 or 9 odd showrooms won’t keep detailed inventory of their holdings. That too unit high – value inventory like Diamonds and record it in a central database.
The perils of being a Twitter-expert. https://t.co/xSQsLttGoK
— Karthik Kumar (@darklordkk) February 16, 2018
In such a big corporate organisation, inventory is maintained with price. Just a few clicks on the computer and total value of stock can be calculated #NiravModiScamhttps://t.co/EAi2aaQCEH
— Pawan Bhatia® (@ibipawan) February 16, 2018
Thus, conspiracy theorists are not able to accept the action taken by the government in Nirav Modi episode. Instead, they continue to work on their propaganda which aims to blame the government for a fraud that has its origins under the UPA regime and not even concede, when swift action is taken and property immediately seized after such frauds surface.