The Congress on Sunday accused the Narendra Modi government of inaction over allegations that ABG Shipyard had defrauded banks of Rs 22,842 crore.
The CBI had announced on Saturday it had booked officials of the company following complaints by banks.
At a press briefing at the Haryana Congress committee office in Chandigarh, party national spokesperson Randeep Surjewala alleged the Narendra Modi government was running a “loot and escape” flagship scheme for bank fraudsters.
He referred to past incidents of bank fraud such as the cases of Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, Lalit Modi and Vijay Mallya. Surjewala claimed ABG Shipyard owner Rishi Agarwal and the other accused in the new case were the new “gems” of the “Shehenshah (emperor)”, apparently referring to PM Modi.
Surjewala gave a timeline of the ABG Shipyard case. He claimed the NCLT had initiated the process of liquidation of the company on August 1, 2017. He noted the Congress had warned about the “scam” of Rishi Agarwal in February 2018. Noting that State Bank of India filed a complaint with the CBI in November 2019, Surjewala alleged the Modi government, CBI and SBI complicated the matter in “bureaucratic wrangling and file pushing”.
Surjewala also referred to Narendra Modi allocating land to ABG Shipyard in 2007 during his tenure as chief minister of Gujarat at rates below the market price.
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Surjewala questioned the government over the delay in lodging an FIR despite liquidation proceedings against ABG Shipyard starting in 2017. He demanded to know why the government did not act when the Congress had raised the issue in 2018 and when SBI had lodged a complaint in 2019.
Surjewala argued the delays proved the “complicity, collusion and connivance” of persons at the “highest echelons of power” in the Narendra Modi government.
