PNB scam: Hours after Mehul Choksi's video message from Antigua, Congress renews attack on Modi government

NEW DELHI: The Congress party on Tuesday renewed its attack on the Narendra Modi government and accused it of complicity in multi-crore Punjab National Bank scam accused Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi's easy escape from the country. 

Furnishing proof of Modi government's alleged involvement in their escape, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said, ''On April 20 this year, after Choksi fled, PM Modi met the Antiguan President in the UK but he didn't utter a word to send back Choksi. This is not my words, it has been said by the Antiguan President in an interview on July 27. He said, "The Indian government never approached them on this issue.''

Surjewala also shared some documents on Twitter to substantiate claims made by the Congress party to prove how PMO, MEA, CBI, SEBI etc gave a clean chit to the fraudsters and facilitated their escape from the country. 

''PMO has admitted that first report of ‘action’ against Nirav Modi/Mehul Choksi was given to PMO by Fin Dept on 1.3.2018. But Nirav Modi had escaped already on 1.1.2018 & Mehul Choksi escaped on 4.1.2018. Complicity of Modiji in escape of Nirav Modi/Mehul Choksi is thus writ large,'' he tweeted.

PMO has admitted that first report of ‘action’ against Nirav Modi/Mehul Choksi was given to PMO by Fin Dept on 1.3.2018.But Nirav Modi had escaped already on 1.1.2018 & Mehul Choksi escaped on 4.1.2018

Complicity of Modiji in escape of Nirav Modi/Mehul Choksi is thus writ large pic.twitter.com/oaEf0nFBxU

— Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) September 11, 2018

The fresh attack on the government from Congress came hours after fugitive PNB scam accused Mehul Choksi sent a video message denying allegations of wrongdoings by him.

In his first message from his hideout in Antigua, Choksi denied allegations of any wrongdoing and instead accused the ED of "illegally" attaching his properties.

In the video message, the fugitive diamantaire also said that his passport was suspended without giving him any explanation.

"All the allegations labelled by the Enforcement Directorate are false and baseless. They have attached my properties illegally without there being any basis of the same," he said in the video.

"The passport authority revoked my passport altogether in view of which I was immobilized. I received an email from the passport office which said that my passport has been suspended due to reasons of security threat to India. 

"I sent an email to the regional passport office Mumbai requesting them to revoke the suspension of my passport. However, I did not receive any reply from them. They did not even give me any explanation to why my passport has been suspended," he added.

Choksi is one of the prime accused in the Rs 13,500-crore Punjab National Bank fraud. He was last traced to Antigua, where he has been granted citizenship.