Sack Jaitley over bank frauds, collusion with fraudsters: Congress

New Delhi: The Congress on Monday demanded Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley be sacked for "allowing" bank frauds to the tune of Rs 90,000 crore and "letting" fraudsters like Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi to flee the country.

Targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Jaitley, Congress leader Sachin Pilot said that under the Bharatiya Janata Party government "an unprecedented 19,000 bank fraud cases involving Rs 90,000 crore" have taken place.

"At least 23 bank fraudsters have left India under their watch after duping the country by over Rs 53,000 crore.

"The successive escapes of Vijay Mallya, Lalit Modi, Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and others reflect that the Modi government is not a guardian of public money but a travel agency facilitating fraud, fleece and fly to foreign shores by wilful bank defaulters," Pilot told the media .

The Congress also questioned why Jaitley's daughter's legal firm accepted retainer fee from Choksi's company despite the Prime Minister's Office, the Finance and Corporate Affairs Ministry as well as various investigative agencies being aware of the fraud by Nirav Modi and Choksi. 

"Jaitley's daughter Sonali Jaitley and son-in- law, Jaiyesh Bakhshi proceeded to accept a retainership from Choksi's fraudster company in December 2017. A sum of Rs 24,00,000 was also received by them. 

"This amount was redeposited on Feb 20 2018, well after both Nirav Modi and Choksi had fled the country," said Pilot. 

"These are the people (Modi and Jaitley) who were officially helping the fraudsters, legally safeguarding them and politically protecting them to escape and run away," said Pilot demanding both the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister to speak up.

Alleging it to be a clear-cut case of "collusion, connivance and conflict of interest", the Congress questioned why Jaitley, his daughter and son-in-law have not been summoned or questioned by CBI and other agencies probing the scam. 

The Congress demanded to know why action was not against Choksi and Nirav Modi despite multiple FIRs and complaints and also who facilitated their escape from the country.