No links with Nirav Modi, says Cong's Singhvi; warns BJP of defamation suit

Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi on Saturday fired back the allegations made by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in connection with Punjab National Bank scam and warned the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with a civil and criminal defamation lawsuit.

Singhvi's reaction came after Sitharaman linked him, his wife and his son to Nirav Modi's business.

Threatening Sitharaman with civil and criminal defamation for making 'ignorant and patently false comments', Singhvi said that neither he, his wife nor his sons had anything to do with Gitanjali Gems or Nirav Modi.

In a press release, Singhvi brushed away the allegations calling it a culpable offence.

"Nirmala Sitharaman and her colleagues are liable to civil and criminal defamation for making ignorant and patently false allegations," he said.

"I intend to file a civil and defamation case against the Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and her colleagues who are spreading the defamatory allegations, I also intend to take action against the sections of media who are spreading the same," said Singhvi in a press conference soon after.

He also said that no one from his family has anything to do with Gitanjali or Nirav Modi companies.

"Neither My wife, sons nor me have anything whatsoever to do with Gitanjali or Nirav Modi companies. Nirav Modi's company was a tenant of a Kamla Mills property owned by Adwait holdings in which my wife and sons are the directors," said the statement by Singhvi.

Giving details of the "link" revealed by Sitharaman, he said that Nirav Modi's company was a tenant of a Kamala Mills property that was owned by Adwait Holdings, in which his wife and sons are directors.

He further said that Adwait Holding owned a commercial property at Parel, which was rented by Firestone (Firestone Diamond) many years ago.

"Neither Adwait nor my family has any interest with Modi or Firestone. Firestone vacated Parel Kamla Mills premises in December 2017," he added.

Earlier today, the defence minister in an address to the media had alleged that Anita Singhvi, wife of Congress leader A M Singhvi, was a director of one of the private holding firms which has dealing with Nirav Modi's jewellery company in Mumbai.

Punjab National Bank detected a 1.77 billion dollars scam in which jeweller Nirav Modi acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking from one of its branches for overseas credit from other Indian lenders.

The scam was started in 2011 and was detected in the third week of January this year, after which the PNB officials reported it to the concerned agencies.

Meanwhile, the PNB filed a second complaint with the CBI on February 13.

The CBI had received the complaint from PNB on January 28 and a case was registered in the case on January 31.