BJP links Rahul, Singhvi to Nirav Modi; Congress says diversionary tactics

The BJP on Saturday tried to pin the blame for the PNB banking fraud on the Congress claiming that it was UPA's "original sin" and sought to link controversial diamond merchant Nirav Modi to Rahul Gandhi and Abhishek Manu Singhvi.

While Union Minister Prakash Javadekar had claimed that state-run banks approved loans to Nirav Modi after Rahul Gandhi visited hi jewelry exhibition, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman claimed that the diamond merchant's company operated from a property owned by Singhvi's wife in Mumbai.

Rahul dismissed the BJP's claim as an attempt to "divert the issue", while Singhvi threatened to lodge "civil and criminal defamation" cases against Sitharaman and her colleagues for making "ill-considered, ignorant and patently false allegations".

"Neither I nor any member of my family has any interest in or relation to Nirav Modi or his companies. His company was a tenant in some commercial property owned by our family company. This tenancy ended in December 2017. None of us have anything to do even remotely with Gitanjali company, Firestar or any other business of Nirav Modi," Singhvi said in a statement.

The BJP rejected Congress' allegations that the banking fraud took place under the NDA government and accused the Opposition party of "spreading lies".

"The original sin took place during the Congress regime. It multiplied, it took traction under the Congress regime. We are not conspiring to help scamsters flee the country, but the BJP government is catching them instead," Sitharaman said.

Sitharaman claimed that it was under the NDA government that the reported scams committed during the UPA rule were being unearthed.