Will Sushma Swaraj swoop down to London and bring back Nirav Modi, asks Chidambaram

Hours after a video emerged showing Nirav Modi walking in the streets of London, former union minister and Congress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday took potshots at External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and asked if she would “swoop down” and bring back the fugitive businessman, a key accused in the Rs 13,500 crore PNB scam, to India.

Hours after a video emerged showing Nirav Modi walking in the streets of London, former union minister and Congress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday took potshots at External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and asked if she would “swoop down” and bring back the fugitive businessman, a key accused in the Rs 13,500 crore PNB scam, to India.

His comments came after the government said it was taking all steps to extradite him from the UK, with the Enforcement Directorate saying that the London authorities have forwarded the plea to a court for initiating proceedings against the fugitive billionaire.

Taking to Twitter, the Congress leader said, “When Lalit Modi stayed on in the UK, I wrote to the UK Chancellor that he should be sent back to India. Mrs Sushma Swaraj mocked me for writing letters.”



“Now Nirav Modi is walking on the streets of London. Will Mrs Sushma Swaraj swoop down, pluck him off the street and bring him back to India?” he added.

Congress also slammed the government and accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of running a “fraudster settlement yojana” for such fugitives. The opposition party alleged that fugitives had looted Rs 1 lakh crore from Indian banks but not even one of them had been caught in five years of the Modi government.

Addressing the media in the national capital, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said, “Fugitive Nirav Modi has been seen enjoying in London, living in a Rs 75 crore flat and wearing a 10,000 pound jacket.”

“First loot Rs 23,000 crore from banks, then run away from the country without any checks, mock the CBI and the ED and then make a comfortable home in a Rs 75 crore flat. (Narendra) Modi is there, so it is possible,” he added.

Another party spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi said it is another instance in which the Modi government has proved that “their slogan ‘Modi hai toh mumkin hai’ (It’s possible if there is Modi) is apt for fraudsters.

“How in 2014, PM Modi had promised the return of Rs 80 lakh crore of black money to India and Rs 15 lakh back in the accounts of every Indian but instead he has ensured Rs 1 lakh crore honest taxpayers’ deposits are now being freely used by these fraudsters to lead a luxurious guilt free life in foreign shores,” she said.

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