Congress accuses BJP of receiving multi-crore donations from scam-hit DHFL

The Congress on Saturday accused the BJP of having accepted donations of crores of rupees from the promoters and associated companies of the fraud-hit DHFL and asked whether there was any quid pro quo.

Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said at a press conference that India's largest banking fraud happened right under the nose of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and asked what the government was doing to recover money from fraudsters, including Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi who left the country.

She said DHFL defrauded 17 banks to the tune of over Rs 34,615 crore but the worrying thing is the direct link of this fraud with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

"DHFL has been accused of committing India's biggest banking fraud, but that hasn't stopped the BJP from receiving donations amounting to over Rs 27.5 crore from the tainted promoters as well as associated companies of DHFL," she alleged.

There was no immediate comment from the BJP over the charges.

Read | CBI books DHFL, its former CMD and director in biggest bank fraud case

Shrinate claimed that Rs 10 crore was given to the BJP from RKW Developers Limited, owned by promoters of DHFL, Rs 10 crore from Wadhawan Global Capital Limited and Rs 7.5 crore from Darshan Developers controlled by the Wadhawan family.

"Why did the BJP continue to take money to the tune of Rs 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," the Congress leader asked.

Shrinate alleged that it is clear 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 has 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 unaware, can India afford this massive financial fraud and regulatory negligence," she asked.

The Congress leader also asked the government what was it doing to check bank frauds and bring the guilty to book.

"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 asked.