Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Monday said Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s “silence” over the PNB scam was to protect her lawyer daughter who was “paid a large retainer” by one of the accused, Mehul Choksi.
“It’s now revealed that our FM’s (Arun Jaitley) silence on the PNB SCAM was to protect his lawyer daughter, who was paid a large retainer by the accused just a month before the SCAM became public,” tweeted Rahul.
“When other law firms of the accused have been raided by the CBI, why not hers?” added the Gandhi scion.
Rahul had also shared a tweet of a news portal that had put out a report that said Jaitley’s daughter’s firm, Jaitley and Bakshi, was engaged by Choksi’s Geetanjali Gems Ltd in December 2017 on a retainership contract which lasted barely a month.
The contract was annulled and the initial payment was returned the very next month by the law firm after newspapers reported the PNB scam involving Choksi’s firm.
The Rs 12,600 crore fraud on state-run Punjab National Bank (PNB) came to light last month and ever since the Congress has been targeting the government, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking answers over Nirav Modi and Choksi’s escape from the country.
The PNB scam involved using Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) issued in favour of the accused by bank employees who misused their access to ther bank’s SWIFT electronic messaging system used for overseas funds transfers.