The Congress on Sunday accused those sitting in the highest echelons of power in the Narendra Modi government of complicity, collusion and connivance in what it described as "India's biggest bank fraud" of ₹22,842 crore by Gujarat-based ABG Shipyard.
The party questioned why the government took five years after the liquidation proceedings of ABG Shipyard to lodge an FIR in connection with the alleged duping of 28 banks.
On February 7, the CBI booked ABG Shipyard Limited, its former chairman and managing director Rishi Kamlesh Agarwal and others for allegedly cheating a consortium of banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI) of over ₹22,842 crore.
Congress general secretary and chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala alleged that the Modi government is running a "loot-and-escape" scheme for bank fraudsters, while naming Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, Lalit Modi, Vijay Mallya, Jatin Mehta, Chetan and Nitin Sandesara, and many others who fled the country after duping Indian banks.
He said the latest entrants to the list are Agarwal and others, who he described as the "new gems".
"Complicity, collusion and connivance of those sitting in the highest echelons of power in the Modi government is writ large in India's biggest bank fraud involving ABG Shipyard and its promoters," Mr. Surjewala said.
He said even though the process of liquidation of ABG Shipyard was started on August 1, 2017 by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), the Congress had warned about the alleged scam on February 15, 2018 and the SBI had filed a complaint against the company and its promoters on November 8, 2019 and again on August 20, 2020.
"Why did it take five years after the liquidation proceedings of ABG Shipyard to lodge even an FIR for duping 28 banks of 22,842 crore?" Mr. Surjewala asked.
"Why did the Modi government refuse to take note of the allegations made on February 15, 2018 by the Congress, warning of a scam in ABG Shipyard, and why no FIR was lodged and criminal action taken despite their accounts having been declared as fraud on June 19, 2019?" he asked.
Mr. Surjewala said the SBI wrote to the CBI in November 2018, "saying there was a fraud committed by ABG Shipyard and seeking the registration of an FIR and criminal action. Despite this, nothing happened and the CBI pushed the files back to the SBI. Public money keeps getting swindled, but no FIR is lodged".
On August 25, 2020, the SBI filed a second complaint with the CBI, saying "please register an FIR as this is a case of cheating and fraud. But the CBI still does not act. It waits for another year and a half. Finally, now, after five years, this FIR has been registered", he added.
Mr. Surjewala alleged that “these indelible facts reflect the gross mismanagement of the banking system, holding the banking system captive to fraudsters and the initiation of the loot-and-escape flagship scheme for bank fraudsters”.
"Over the last seven-and-a-half years of the Modi government, incidents of bank fraud involving a total amount of ₹5.35 lakh crore have been reported. During this period, the write-offs by the banks in India is ₹8.17 lakh crore.
"Bank NPAs amounted to ₹21 lakh crore between 2014 and 2021. That is the state of gross mismanagement of people's money, which is lying in the banking system," the Congress leader said, adding that, "India woke up to the rude shock of the biggest ever bank fraud in the last 75 years involving ₹22,842 crore." He claimed that ABG Shipyard was allotted 1.21 lakh square metres of land in 2007 by the BJP government in Gujarat.
"The comptroller and auditor general had indicted the then Gujarat government for undue favours to ABG Shipyard and Rishi Agarwal over allotting land at ₹700 per square metre, while the price of the land was 100% higher, that is ₹1,400 per square metre," Mr. Surjewala said.
He said the then Gujarat government proceeded to allot 50 hectares of land to ABG Shipyard in Dahej.
The SBI had first filed a complaint on November 8, 2019 on which the CBI had sought some clarifications on March 12, 2020.
The bank filed a fresh complaint in August 2020. After "scrutinising" the complaint for a year and a half, the CBI acted on the complaint, filing an FIR on February 7 this year.
In its complaint, the SBI had said ABG Shipyard Limited (ABGSL) is the flagship company of the ABG Group, which is engaged in the business of ship building and ship repair.
