Congress is happy seeing Nirav Modi in London: Prakash Javadekar

The Congress party is happy seeing fugitive billionaire Nirav Modi in London, said Union Minister Prakash Javadekar in Jaipur on Saturday.

“The Congress party, which has reared up Nirav Modi, feels happy to see that he is fine in London. It, however, does not know that the Indian government’s efforts are on to bring him back to India,” Javadekar told ANI.

He said that Indian government’s requests for the extradition of economic offenders have been acted upon earlier as well, and gave the example of Rajiv Saxena, Christian Michel, and Deepak Talwar to bring home his point.

“All these economic offenders ran away as soon as the BJP came to power at the Centre under the leadership of Narendra Modi. They knew that they won’t be spared by the BJP government. Till the time Congress was in power, they knew that their loot will continue,” he said.

“I want to ask the Congress leaders—What is their relationship with Nirav Modi? One day Rahul Gandhi goes to a programme organised by Nirav Modi, and next day he gets a loan from the Allahabad Bank,” Javadekar said.

Union Minister Javadekar’s reaction comes in response to the reports in British media that Nirav Modi is living in London.

The British newspaper story reveals that Modi has also started a new diamond business in Soho.

The newspaper headlined its piece—‘Exclusive: India’s most wanted man Nirav Modi—accused of £1.5 billion fraud—living openly in London.’

The video shows Nirav Modi sporting a handle-bar moustache and wearing an expensive jacket, repeatedly saying “no comments” to a series of questions put to him by the newspaper’s reporter, including whether he has sought asylum in the United Kingdom.

Modi is the subject of an extradition request by India, along with an Interpol Red Corner Notice issued for the PNB scam accused.

He is the prime accused in Rs 13,000 crore PNB fraud, along with his uncle Mehul Choksi, who has got the citizenship of Antigua and Barbuda.

Modi and Choksi left India in January last year before the PNB scam was exposed.The duo has not returned to India despite repeated summons from the probe agencies and courts to be put on trial.

“Journalists of The Telegraph managed to track down Nirav Modi. Why was the Modi Govt unable to do so? Who is Modi trying to protect? Himself, Nirav Modi or the people who let him escape?" the Congress tweeted on its official handle.