Twenty-four hours after the CBI unearthed a Rs 22,842 crore scam against ship-building firm ABG Shipyard for duping 28 banks, the Congress party on Sunday came down straight on Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging his role in it.
The private ship-building firm has major stakes in Gujarat and the Congress has accused the State Government led by the then Chief Minister Modi of doling out special favours while the company didn’t implement several requirements.
Addressing press conferences in Chandigarh and Ahmedabad, Congress’ spokespersons Randeep Surjewala and Shaktisinh Gohil, who is also a Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat, called out the Modi Government when in Gujarat.
They accused Modi of being hand in glove with the promoters of ABG Shipyard. Gohil tweeted: “Rishi Agarwal was always seen in vibrant (Gujarat investor) summits with Mr Modi. He was part of the delegation led by the then CM of the state Narendra Modi to South Korea in 2013. He is now accused of defrauding a consortium of SBI of over Rs 22,842 crore, in biggest bank fraud case."
Gohil and Surjewala alleged that, “This scam is worse than the Vijay Mallya scam.”
They said, “Rishi’s case is even worse than Vijay Mallya because his total debt is (Rs) 22,843 crore for ABG Shipyard, (Rs) 2,500 crore for ABG cement (rechristened as Vadraj cement) and Rs 500 crore for ABG Energy."
The Congress spokespersons alleged that the Modi Government “is running a ‘Loot & Escape’ Flagship scheme for Fraudsters. India’s Biggest Bank Fraud in 75 years has taken place under Modi Govt's watch,” the party has allegted.
Gohil said in the last seven years “bank frauds of Rs 5.35 lakh crore have wrecked our banking system.” And that many fraudsters have had a close connection to the 'ruling establishment'.
He said, “Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, Ami Modi, Neeshal Modi, Lalit Modi, Vijay Mallya, Jatin Mehta, Chetan Sandesara, Nitin Sandesara and Rishi Agarwal & others are the new ‘GEMS’ of the ‘Shehenshah’.”
The Congress asserted that the ABG case exposed the, “complicity, collusion and connivance” of the Modi Government in India’s Biggest Fraud.
They alleged that the CBI lodged an FIR against the firm after a deliberate delay of 5 years. The Congress has pointed out that the ABG Shipyard was allotted 1,21,000 square metres of land in 2007 by Gujarat Government headed then by Narendra Modi.
The Congress party said the CAG indicted the Gujarat Government for undue favours to ABG Shipyard and Rishi Agarwal for allotting land at Rs 700 per square metre, while the price of land was 100% higher i.e Rs 1,400 per square metre.
The spokespersons added that, “Despite the CAG report, the Gujarat Govt headed by the then CM Narendra Modi proceeded to allot 50 hectares of land to ABG Shipyard and Rishi Agarwal in Dahej, Gujarat. The Dahej project was shut down by ABG Shipyard in the year 2015.”
