Anybody who helps a 'bhagoda' is wrong, says BJP MP

A day after union minister Nitin Gadkari dismissed charges against Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhra Raje of helping former IPL chief Lalit Modi, a Bharatiya Janata Party parliamentarian said "anybody who helps a bhagoda (fugitive) is wrong".

"Lalit Modi is an absconder and no one should help him. The government should file a case to revoke his passport," member of Lok Sabha and former union home secretary R.K. Singh told media persons here.

"Anybody who helps a bhagoda (fugitive) is wrong. He (Lalit Modi) should immediately be brought back as he is an offender. He should be ready to face the law," he added.

Backing Raje, Gadkari on Monday had dismissed charges against her of helping Modi by saying she was "completely right legally, logically and ethically".

The BJP has defended External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj who is being accused of helping Modi in getting British travel documents on "humanitarian grounds" to travel to Portugal in 2014 after his Indian passport stood revoked.

R.K. Singh, an MP from Arrah in Bihar, also took a jibe at Mumbai's top police officer Rakesh Maria meeting Modi.

He said: "A police commissioner meeting an absconder is not correct."

Maria had met Modi in London in July last year.

The BJP refused to comment on R.K. Singh's remarks.

"Next question... I have not heard," union minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters when he was asked for BJP's reaction to R.K. Singh's remarks.

However, R.K. Singh got support from the Congress.

"R.K. Singh has only confirmed what the Congress and also other political parties have been saying all along that the BJP leadership is knee-deep in the Modi-gate scam," Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala told IANS.

"The events over the last few days show that the needle of suspicion lies at the door of the prime minister. Now that the former home secretary affirms all that we have said, the prime minister needs to break his silence," he added.

Meanwhile, Sachin Pilot, president of the Rajasthan unit of the Congress, said in Jaipur that Sushma Swaraj and Vasundhara Raje should resign on moral grounds.

"We, as the Congress party, are asking for the resignation of Rajasthan chief minister and the foreign minister on legal, ethical and moral grounds," Pilot said at a press conference.

"So before any conclusive investigation is conducted and finished, it is very surprising that ministers are giving a clean chit to the people who have been alleged in these violations of law," Pilot said.

Raje is accused of testifying in favour of Modi's British immigration application in 2011.