New Delhi: Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday alleged that there was a clear “link” between the family of senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi and a firm run by Nirav Modi, the man at the centre of the Rs 11,400 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam.
The charges have been denied by Singhvi, who said he will defamation case against Sitharaman and her colleagues for making ill-considered, ignorant and patently false allegations.
Fielded by the BJP to counter the Congress charge that the scam took place in 2017 under the Narendra Modi government, the defence minister said that Singhvi’s family has had business dealings with the prime accused in the fraud case for a long time.
“Fire Star Diamond International Pvt Ltd, one of the companies of Nirav Modi, was acquired from Adwait Holdings. One of the shareholders of Adwait is Anita Singhvi, wife of you know who, since 2002,” she said.
She added, “The property of Adwait Holdings Pvt Ltd, whose directors are wife and son of Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi - Anita Singhvi and Avishkar Singhvi - is rented to Nirav Modi's jewellery company in Mumbai. Both companies have also done loan transactions. Despite the clear link with them, Congress party has the audacity to point fingers at BJP?”
Singhvi, who was in Kolkata to attend a wedding, rubbished the allegations and termed them ludicrous, malicious and defamatory. "This is midsummer madness," he said. He categorically denied that he or his family had any business dealings with Nirav Modi or Gitanjali and asked whether all landlords where Nirav Modi's firms were tenants would be arrested.
In a statement, he said, “BJP’s cheap sense of politics has reached ludicrous and ridiculous proportions. Neither my wife, sons nor me have anything whatsoever to do with Gitanjali or Nirav Modi’s companies. Sensationalism, ignorance and falsehood has exceeded all limits in this irresponsible charge,” he said.
Giving details of the “link” revealed by Sitharaman, he said that Nirav Modi’s company was a tenant of a Kamala Mills property that was owned by Adwait Holdings, in which his wife and sons are directors.
“Adwait holdings owns a commercial property at Parel, as it does elsewhere, which was rented by Firestone many years ago. Neither Adwait nor my family has any interest with Nirav Modi or Firestone. Last August, firestone gave notice to quit tenancy and vacated Parel Kamala Mills premises in December 2017,” he added.
Sitharaman, in her press conference, also accused the Congress Party of having committed the “original sin” as the scam was “committed from 2011”.
She also alleged that Congress president Rahul Gandhi had participated in Nirav Modi’s firm’s promotional event in 2013. “This despite the fact that the firm had been barred from doing business at the stock exchange for six months,” she said.
She also cited the example of a government director of Allahabad Bank, who in 2013 had raised objections to the financial restructuring of Gitanjali Gems, saying he was asked to resign and his dissent was not even recorded.
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