No one involved in PNB fraud case will be spared: BJP

Team Udayavani, Feb 16, 2018, 8:40 AM IST

New Delhi: Under attack from the Congress over an Rs 11,400 crore scam allegedly involving designer Nirav Modi, the BJP today said no one involved in the PNB fraud case would be spared and the investigation was proceeding at a rapid pace.

Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad also clarified that Nirav Modi was not part of the delegation to Davos led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and had reached there on his own. Addressing a press conference at the party office, he rejected the Congress’ allegation that the prime minister had a private meeting with Nirav Modi.

The senior BJP leader said the tax payer’s money would not be allowed to go waste. “I wish to make it very clear on the behalf of the government that no one who has sought to derail ordinary banking system shall be spared, regardless of any individual’s stature and status,” Prasad told reporters.

State-owned Punjab National Bank yesterday said that it had detected a scam worth about Rs 11,400 crore — where Nirav Modi allegedly acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking from a branch in Mumbai to secure overseas credit from other Indian lenders.

Accusing the government of doing nothing doing nothing to stop “independent India’s biggest bank fraud” despite being informed of it, the Congress today released a picture of Nirav Modi with the business delegation accompanying the prime minister to Davos at the World Economic Forum meet last month.

The party also released a copy of a complaint by a Bangalore resident Hari Prasad, seeking early action against Nirav Modi and his business partner Mehul Choksi, that it said was acknowledged by the Prime Minister’s Office on July 26, 2016.