ABG Shipyard case another feather in Congress' cap of blatant corruption: BJP

Workers paint a ship at the ABG Shipyard at Magdalla Port, near Surat, around 280 km from Ahmedabad on July 20, 2012. Trouble for ABG Shipyard started during the economic slowdown that followed the global financial crisis of 2007-08.

The BJP on Wednesday targeted the Congress for the bank fraud case involving ABG Shipyard, saying it occurred when the UPA was in power. BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said the crime was detected and acted upon by the current government.

BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said the crime was detected and acted upon by the current government.

Also Read: Criminal conspiracy, cheating, breach of trust and all that went wrong with ABG Shipyard

He said the Congress has exposed itself by linking, what its chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala called the "biggest bank fraud", with Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government, as the probe has revealed the entire scam happened during the UPA dispensation.

Also Read: CBI issues lookout notice against ABG Shipyard directors in Rs 23,000 crore bank fraud case

This is another "feather" in the already overburdened cap of blatant corruption of the Congress, Trivedi alleged.

"The Congress should tell us, what was its role in the biggest scam? It is believed that the company’s promoters had close relations with a former political adviser to the Congress president,” Trivedi said in a press conference.

What has been described as Rs 22,000 crore scam started in 2012 and the company’s loan was restructured in March 2014 in the last days of the UPA government, he said citing the CBI report.

He said that an audit report exposed the "wrongdoings" in 2016, and the BJP government took an action against it.

The CBI had on Tuesday said it had issued look-out notices against Rishi Kamlesh Agarwal, the former chairman and managing director of ABG Shipyard, and eight others in a bank fraud involving Rs 22,842 crore.

It also gave other details related to the alleged fraud.

Taking a swipe at Surjewala for his strong words against Modi, Trivedi asked if the same condemnation was applicable to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi.