The Westminster Magistrates Court on Monday dismissed a plea from diamantaire Nirav Modi’s defence counsel to hold the next deposition of its witness, former high court judge and Congress leader Abhay Thipsay, away from the public glare.
The defence team of fugitive Nirav Modi led by Claire Montgomery asked judge Samuel Goozee for a secret hearing of Abhay Thipsay or impose reporting restrictions on the proceedings so he does not become subject of criticism like the previous time.
The defence counsel argued in the court that Thipsay in May had to face a “disgraceful attack” by Prasad in a press conference and suffer from the “very hostile reporting” in the mainstream media. She contended that her clienr feared that another public deposition might unleash another flurry of attack against him.
However, the British judge cited the precedents to claim that circumstances did not justify the secret hearing of the case or putting a curb on the media reporting. He mentioned that the Congress leader had not declined to provide further evidence in the case.
BJP attacked Abhay Thipsay for appearing as witness for fugitive economic offender Nirav Modi
Congress leader Thipsay had to bear the brunt of backlash last time when he told the UK court via videolink from India in May that the Indian government’s charges against Nirav Modi would not hold up in an Indian court. The next day, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad called a press conference and mounted attack against the Congress leader.
“There is overpowering suspicious circumstances from which we can infer that the Congress is trying its best to save and bail out Nirav Modi,” Ravi Shankar Prasad sharply noted in a press conference in May while accusing Thipsay of working at the behest of Congress to save Nirav Modi.
Rahul Gandhi attacked PM Modi for shielding Nirav Modi while Congress leader Abhay Thipsay appear as witness for Nirav
It is worth noting that former Congress party President Rahul Gandhi, with no credible issue to attack Modi government, has time and again resorted to the Centre of shielding the fugitive economic offenders such as Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, Vijay Mallya and others. Rahul Gandhi went so far as to draw an “uncanny similarity” between PM Modi and Nirav Modi in the run up to his campaign for General elections 2019, in which he disastrously failed. While the Congress leader attacks PM Modi for allegedly helping the offenders, his party members such as Abhay Thipsay appear as witness in the case for Nirav Modi.
