Days after the UK High Court rejected Nirav Modi’s appeal against his extradition to India, retired Bombay High Court judge and Congress leader Abhay Thipsay, who was a defence witness of Modi, was seen at Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra. Abhay Thipsay, who joined the Congress party in 2018, appeared as a defence witness for Nirav Modi in a hearing in a UK court in 2020.
On Friday, November 11, a Tweet in Hindi from Congress’ official Twitter handle read, “Today in #BharatJodoYatra @RahulGandhi ji met retired judges and lawyers and discussed their problems, the current situation in the country and the purpose of the visit. Together we have to get the country out of this difficult situation.”
आज #BharatJodoYatra में @RahulGandhi जी ने सेवानिवृत्त न्यायाधीशों एवं वकीलों से मुलाकात कर उनकी समस्याओं, देश के ताज़ा हालात एवं यात्रा के उद्देश्य पर चर्चा की।
— Congress (@INCIndia) November 11, 2022
हमें साथ मिलकर ही देश को इस मुश्किल परिस्थिति से बाहर निकालना है। pic.twitter.com/P8FIZLBZsy
Abhay Thipsay was seen in one of the photos posted by the party which showed him holding a microphone as if addressing the crowd, while another showed him sitting in the front row.
Abhay Thipsay is a retired Bombay HC Judge who joined the Congress party in 2018 after meeting the then Congress President Rahul Gandhi. He had joined Congress ‘to fight communal forces and communalism’. He later launched a book blaming Hindus for bomb blasts done by Islamic radicals. He was the same judge who convicted 9 out of the 17 accused in the Best Bakery case. Justice Thipsay claimed that the Hindus carried out the 2008 Malegaon blasts.
Thipsay had faced flak for granting bail to actor Salman Khan in a hit-and-run case after a lower court convicted him in 2015.
Congress member Abhay Thipsay appeared as an expert witness for Nirav Modi in UK Court
Thipsay had particularly been in news in 2020 after he appeared as a defence witness for fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi in a hearing in a UK court in May of that year. During the extradition proceedings, Abhay Thipsay, a retired judge turned Congress leader and a close confidante of Rahul Gandhi, had informed the London court via video link that the charges levelled by Nirav Modi which include criminal conspiracy, cheating and dishonestly inducting delivery of property, would not stand scrutiny under Indian law.
Thipsay, who testified via video link, claimed that some of the police statements in the case against Nirav Modi as well as the definition of deception will be “inadmissible” under Indian law.
In his testimony, Abhay Thipsay had also claimed that there was no victim of the scam done by Nirav Modi, therefore he is not guilty. When the Indian govt’s counsel pointed out that Punjab National Bank was the victim as it has lost around $2 billion in the fraud, Thipsay had claimed that a corporate body can’t be victim, and he had asked the govt to identify persons who were deceived by Nirav Modi.
Since Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has always harped on the alleged proximity between Nirav Modi, the key accused in the PNB scam, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing the latter of assisting the offender, it was extremely paradoxical that Abhay Thipsay, a retired judge turned Congress leader and Rahul Gandhi’s close confidante, appeared to defend Nirav Modi.
UK Court had slammed Abhay Thipsay
While giving the go-ahead for the extradition of Nirav Modi to India, the UK court had made scathing remarks against defence witness Abhay Thipsay for not revealing his political affiliation. The judge had said, “I note he has never disclosed his party-political affiliation either in the report’s biography or in relation to this declaration as an expert and disclosure of any potential conflict of interests”. The court had said that it is inevitable that he could have foreseen that his affiliation to the Congress party may attract interest.
UK court, which permitted extradition of Nirav Modi, is scathing against Congress party’s Abhay Thipsay, former HC judge.
— Kartikeya Tanna (@KartikeyaTanna) February 25, 2021
In giving testimony in favour of Nirav Modi, Thipsay “never disclosed his party-political affiliation” or “any potential conflict of interests”.
Wow. pic.twitter.com/AzqpusflF9
Interestingly, after the former judge’s testimony in support of Nirav Modi in the UK Court became public and triggered a controversy in India, he had requested the court to make his testimony ‘private’.
BJP attacked the retired Bombay HC judge and Congress members for appearing as witnesses for fugitive economic offender Nirav Modi
After Thipsay appeared to defend fugitive Nirav Modi in the UK court, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad called a press conference and mounted an 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.
BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra had also Tweeted asking “what was the deal between Rahul and Nirav?”. Patra Tweeted, “Here in India, Rahul Gandhi questions the government over Nirav Modi … On the other hand, Rahul’s special and Congress’s Abhay Thipsay (former judge) witness in favour of Nirav Modi. After all, what is it that Rahul does not want Nirav to come to India? What was the deal between Rahul and Nirav at the party that night?” Patra appeared to be referring to a party attended by Nirav Modi and Rahul in Delhi in 2013.
यहाँ भारत में राहुल गाँधी नीरव मोदी को ले,सरकार से सवाल पूछते है ..
— Sambit Patra (@sambitswaraj) May 14, 2020
दूसरी तरफ़ राहुल के ख़ास एवं Congress के Abhay Tipsay (पूर्व judge) नीरव मोदी के पक्ष में गवाह बनते है
आख़िर ऐसा क्या है जो राहुल नहीं चाहते नीरव भारत आए?
उस रात पार्टी में राहुल और नीरव में क्या लेन देन हुई थी? pic.twitter.com/jrHDeDP6B2
However, despite the desperate attempts of Congress member Abhay Thipsay to defend the scamster Nirav Modi, on November 9, 2022, the UK High Court ordered the extradition of fugitive Nirav Modi to India. The High Court rejected diamond dealer Nirav Modi’s appeal against his extradition, clearing the route for his return to India. The verdict was delivered by a bench consisting of Lord Justice Jeremy Stuart-Smith and Justice Robert Jay. Nirav Modi is wanted in India for the $2 billion loan scandal at Punjab National Bank (PNB).
