New Delhi, May 14 (IANS): Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday alleged that the Congress was trying to save fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi by assigning a former judge to defend the businessman in court.

The Minister claimed that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi of attending a function of Nirav Modi on September 13, 2013 after which, he added, the firms of the absconding businessman were lent loans by banks.

Addressing the media through a videoconference, Prasad said that a Congress leader, who is a former judge, has been tasked to defend Nirav Modi in court.

Prasad, who is a senior BJP leader, also questioned at whose behest was the former judge working to save Nirav Modi.

"He is the same judge who had been transferred from Mumbai to Allahabad on administrative grounds while he was in service. He did not join at the new place and preferred to take retirement and join the Congress," the Minister said.

He said that at a time when the central government had confiscated the property of Nirav Modi and was trying to get him extradited from abroad, this move of the Congress was condemnable and brought forth the true face of the opposition party.

The jeweller was arrested by the Scotland Yard in the UK in March 2019 on the basis of an extradition warrant issued by an India court on charges of fraud and money laundering. He has been denied bail five times so far. The businessman has also applied for political asylum in the UK, sources had earlier told IANS.

On December 5 last year, a special PMLA court in Mumbai had declared Nirav Modi, one of the prime accused in the Rs 13,500-crore Punjab National Bank scam of 2017, as a 'fugitive economic offender'.