BJP loyal to 'conman', not common man: Congress

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is loyal to the 'conman' and not the common man, alleged the Congress party while launching an attack against the incumbent government on the issue of fugitive bank defaulters.

Addressing a media briefing here, Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill said, "The manner in which economy is sinking at fast pace, banking scams increasing and the outbound traffic of fraudsters has increased, is a living testimony of the fact that BJP is loyal to the 'conman' and not common man."

Levying serious allegations against Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the BJP , he said, "The manner where certain facts have come out in open yesterday that a joint director of CBI orchestrated and assisted the government in ensuring the smooth escape of Vijay Mallya, it is clear that neither the BJP government nor the CBI can be trusted for an investigation in this entire matter. Seeing the complicit roles of BJP and law enforcement agency -- CBI, INC demands that an independent investigation should be ordered into the smooth escape of Vijay Mallya who ran away with the public money of 9000 crores plus."

"The manner in which Mallya has escaped in broad daylight proves that neither Prime Minister Modi nor the Finance Minister is the guardian of public money but they are travel agents of scammers and fraudsters. Entire BJP government is loyal to the defaulters of this country and not loyal to the people who have deposited their money with faith and trust," added the Congress spokesperson.

Putting forward their demand on the issue, the Congress party also made claims regarding its extent and loss to the exchequer.

It said, "We demand that Accountability and responsibility should be fixed on PM Modi and FM for the loot of Rs 90000 Cr of public money and escape of 23 fugitives under their watch. Total amount looted from these bank frauds is 90000 crore. 23 fugitives have escaped while Modi government was snoozing. Total numbers of 23,000 cases of bank frauds are registered in the last four years."

The Congress spokesperson also alleged that the BJP government has not launched even a single investigation against the escape of these 23 fugitives so far.

The BJP and the Congress war of words have intensified in last few days after liquor baron Mallya claimed to have met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley before absconding from the country.