The Punjab National Bank (PNB) and the Indian banking system as a whole has been left shaken by a massive Rs 11,000 crore financial fraud allegedly perpetrated by diamond trader Nirav Modi and his entities, with the help of fraudulent Letter of Undertaking’s (LOU).
Soon after the news of the fraud, which incidentally was perpetrated since 2011 broke, the Congress party decided to desperately link it to Narendra Modi by claiming that Nirav Modi met the PM in the Davos economic summit this year.
As the fraud had started since 2011 it was a matter of time before the troubles began for the UPA government. Yesterday it was reported that the former Finance secretary Rajiv Takru, working under the erstwhile UPA government had tried to “silence” the PNB whistleblower in 2013. Besides this, it has been alleged that Finance Minister P Chidambaram himself had signed the whistleblower’s termination letter.
Further news reports claimed that an unnamed Congress leader was involved in cash deals with Nirav Modi’s stores during the demonetisation period, raising question over the suspicious nature of these transactions.
Now in a BJP press conference chaired by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the party has alleged a link between Nirav Modi and senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi. As per Ms Sitharaman, one of Nirav Modi’s companies named Fire star diamond international Pvt Ltd was acquired from Advait Holdings, one of whose shareholders since 2002 is Anita Singhvi, the wife of Abhishek Singhvi:
The property of Adwait Holdings Pvt Ltd, whose directors are wife and son of Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Anita Singhvi and Avishkar Singhvi, is rented to Nirav Modi’s jewellery company in Mumbai. Both companies have also done loan transactions: Smt @nsitharaman
— BJP (@BJP4India) February 17, 2018
She also alleged that Abhishek Singhvi’s wife and son (Avishkar Singhvi) are also directors of the company and one of its property is Nirav Modi’s jewellery company in Mumbai.
Ms Sitharaman thus pointed fingers at the Congress party by alleging that “all the inheritance, legacy and property” here belonged to the Congress party, who she called beneficiaries and promoters. As a result of this she questioned why Congress was attacking the BJP over the matter when as per her, the skeletons were tumbling from the former’s closets.
It seems that we might be heading for a political war of sorts as, after Ms Sitharaman’s high profile allegations, Abhishek Singhvi has now threatened to sue her.
