Congress questions govt over ABG loan fraud

New Delhi, February 13

The BJP on Sunday hit back at the Congress over private firm ABG Shipyard allegedly cheating banks of over Rs 22,842 crore, saying these loans were sanctioned when the UPA was in power whereas the Modi government had gone after the promoters behind such frauds.

BJP spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Syed Zafar Islam said that for the Congress to attack the government over the case was like “thief blaming the cops for the crime”.

He said these loans were given prior to 2014 when the BJP came to power and the BJP government had identified the fraud. “That is why we have taken action,” he added, referring to the CBI case in the matter.

The Congress accused the Modi government of complicity, collusion and connivance in “India’s biggest bank fraud”, asking why the government took five years after the liquidation proceedings of ABG Shipyard to lodge an FIR. The CBI on February 7 booked ABG Shipyard Limited, its former chairman and managing director Rishi Kamlesh Agarwal and others for allegedly cheating a consortium of banks led by State Bank of India (SBI) of over Rs 22,842 crore.

The BJP spokesperson said banks had been giving loans on the basis of the strength of companies, unlike in the past when they sanctioned loans at the “behest of political masters”.

“The Congress is brazening it out. Its government ran the ‘phone banking’ scam with its functionaries forcing banks to sanction loans after accepting commissions from these promoters,” he said. —