New Delhi, Feb 14 (IANS): The Congress on Monday accused the Narendra Modi-led Central government of 'complicity, collusion and connivance' by those sitting in the highest echelons of power in what it called 'India's biggest fraud'.
Addressing a press conference here, Congress leader Gaurav Vallabh said, "'Shahenshah's' promise was $5 trillion economy, but he gave us bank fraud of Rs 5.35 trillion in the last 7.5 years."
Vallabh's remarks came after it was found that the sensational Rs 22,842 crore mega loan fraud allegedly perpetrated by the Gujarat-based ABG Shipyard Ltd (ABGSL) did not even spare the IPO-bound Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), while ICICI Bank and IDBI Bank took the worst-hit among other government, private, and foreign banks and NBFCs.
"Average fraud in the banking industry per day in the last 7.5 years (2,737 days) is Rs 195.5 crores a day, as per an RTI reply, while RBI's recovery rate in 2020-21 of these frauds stood at 0.7 per cent. 'Loot and escape' is Modi government's flagship scheme for bank fraudsters. A total of Rs 22,842 crore of public money was swindled. Ease of committing fraud is the new scheme launched by the Modi government for bank fraudsters," Vallabh said.
The Congress also alleged that the biggest ever bank fraud of Rs 22,842 crore happened under Modi government's watch, and after a five-year delay, the CBI finally registered an FIR on February 7 against Gujarat-based ABG Shipyard owned by Rishi Agarwal and others for duping 28 banks.
The State Bank of India (SBI), which first reported the scam, has named ABG Shipyard Ltd, the corporate guarantor ABG Shipyard International Pvt Ltd, the company's Chairman-cum-Managing Director Rishi Kamlesh Agarwal, Executive Director Santhanam Muthaswamy, Directors Sushil Kumar Agarwal, Ashwini Kumar (all from Mumbai), Ravi Vimal Nevetia (Pune), besides unknown persons and public servants.
Private lender ICICI Bank has been duped of a staggering Rs 7,089 crore -- the highest -- followed by the IDBI Bank Ltd with a fraud amount of Rs 3,639 crore.