New Delhi: The Congress on Wednesday said the ED rushes to opposition leaders but why was there no action against fugitive businessman Jatin Mehta, who fled the country after swindling Rs 7000 cr of Indian banks.
“The ED rushes to the opposition leaders but has not been seen in the case of Jatin Mehta, owner of Winsome Diamonds who swindled Rs 7000 cr of Indian banks and fled away. The banks first complained about the fraud in 2014 but the CBI registered an FIR only in 2017. Since then, there has been no action in the case,” Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said.
“To make things worse, Jatin Mehta along with his wife became a citizen of St Kitts in the Caribbean in 2016 and his extradition is not possible as India does not have a treaty with that country. Who gave a no objection certificate in the government to Jatin Mehta and his wife before they got citizenship of St Kitts? What about the public money that he swindled? Who is protecting Jatin Mehta? Why is the might of Indian law not chasing him?” she said.
Elaborating further, the Congress leader alleged that Jatin Mehta was being shielded as he is related to Vinod Adani, brother of Gautam Adani, who is a friend of PM Modi. “Jatin Mehta’s daughter is married to the son of Vinod Adani, brother of Gautam Adani. The international banks are probing the frauds committed by Jatin Mehta in the UK but there has been no action against the fugitive in India,” said Shrinate.
Explaining the modus operandi of the fugitive, she said “that Mehta obtained letters of credit from the public banks and used the same to import gold. He then used the imported gold to make jewelry and exported the same to 13 companies in Dubai. He later claimed that the said companies refused to make payments for the jewelry exports and showed it as a loss to his company.
"Actually, there was no loss. Mehta swindled the money as the 13 companies were owned by him. That money belongs to the people of India and to Indian banks. But all this happened under the nose of the Modi government and there is no action against Mehta as he is a relative of the Adani family. Otherwise, he would be in jail,” said Shrinate.
The Congress leader further alleged that Mehta is linked to Monterosa company, based in Mauritius, which is among the shell companies which have invested money in the Adani group. “Therefore, the key question is who invested Rs 20,000 crore in Adani group through shell companies. This needs to be found out and can be done only through a JPC probe,” she said.
The Congress leader further said that while the PM keeps claiming action against corruption, such action is only against the opposition leaders and not against those who face charges but join the BJP. She cited the low conviction rate of the ED over the past years saying most of the cases were against opposition leaders only.
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