Keeping up its attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s relationship with industralist Gautam Adani, the Congress accused the government of letting diamond merchant Jatin Mehta flee the country and asked whether he was provided “protection” due to his family connection with Mr. Adani.
Addressing a press conference at the Congress headquarters in Delhi, spokesperson Supriya Shrinate alleged that Mr. Mehta had swindled ₹7,000 crore from Indian banks. “He [Mehta] not just fled the country but also took citizenship of Saint Kitts and Nevis, Caribbean, and a ‘No Objection Certificate’ was issued by the Indian government.
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Drawing parallels with other bank fraud accused such as Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi, Ms. Shrinate said, that Mr. Mehta also employed similar modus operandi. “He too imported gold on the basis of letters of credit from Indian banks. They made it into jewellery and this jewellery was then exported to Dubai. It is shocking that the 13 companies to which this jewellery was exported in Dubai were eventually all owned by Jatin Mehta and his family,” she added. Mr. Mehta is the owner of Winsome Diamonds, Forever Preciosu Jewellery and diamonds and Su-Raj diamonds. It was said that those companies refused to make the payments and which was why that money turned into losses, she added.
“Actually, that money was swindled by Jatin Mehta and family. That money belongs to honest taxpayers of this country, it is the money that belongs to public sector banks of this country, it’s the money for which the ED and the CBI should be running from pillar to post but nothing is happening on that,” the Congress leader alleged.
Ms. Shrinate also alleged that Mr. Mehta had links with some shell companies based out of Mauritius that pumped money into the Adani Group. She also alleged links with a “suspicious” Chinese national.
