The Congress on Saturday accused the the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of accepting donations from the promoters and associated companies of the fraud-hit Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd. (DHFL) and asked if there was a quid pro quo.
Addressing a press conference, party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said that DHFL defrauded 17 banks to the tune of over ₹34,615 crore, but the “worrying thing is the direct link of this fraud company and the BJP”.
“DHFL has been accused of committing India’s biggest banking fraud, but that hasn’t stopped the BJP from receiving donations amounting to over ₹27.5 crore from the tainted promoters as well as associated companies of DHFL,” Ms. Shrinate alleged.
She claimed that ₹10 crore was given to the BJP from RKW Developers Ltd., owned by the promoters of DHFL, ₹10 crore from Wadhawan Global Capital Ltd. and ₹7.5 crore from Darshan Developers controlled by the Wadhawan family.
“Why did the BJP continue to take money to the tune of ₹27.5 crore from bank fraudsters? Was this quid pro quo to allow them to misuse public money and dupe India’s public sector lenders?” Ms Shrinate said.
There was, however, no immediate response from the the BJP to the Congress’s allegations.
The Congress spokesperson alleged that the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana was scammed by one company alone that created 2.6 lakh fake home loan accounts and asked whether an audit of the housing scheme had been done to search for more such fraudsters.
“How did the audit of PMAY not unearth the DHFL scam and it was revealed in the Yes Bank probe? The FIR states DHFL created a fictitious bank branch on paper. That raises the important question of the role of institutions like RBI, SEBI, NHB (National Housing Board), etc. Why were they all caught unawares? Can India afford this massive financial fraud and regulatory negligence,” she asked.
The Congress leader claimed that India’s largest banking fraud happened right under the nose of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and asked what steps the government was taking to recover money from fugitives like Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi.
“What is the update on recovery of funds and cases against people like Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, Vijay Mallya all of whom fled the country under the watch of the Modi government?” she said.
