Congress questions Centre in delay in filing FIR against ABG group

Congress on Thursday again attacked the Centre on delay in filing FIR on the ABG Shipyard despite Ahmedabad DRT's order in 2018 for recovery of Rs 13,975 crore from the company.

The Congress on Thursday once again attacked the Union Government on delay in filing FIR on the ABG Shipyard despite Ahmedabad DRT's order in 2018 for recovery of Rs 13,975 crore from the company. The FIR was filed on February 7 after a delay of five years.

Addressing a press conference, party spokesperson Gaurav Vallabh said, "In 2018, Ahmedabad DRT ordered banks to recover Rs 13,975 crore from ABG group. In the same order it is also mentioned that if the above-mentioned amount is not paid by the company, the same should be recovered by selling movable and immovable property of ABG. But banks did not go ahead with this, why? On March 31, 2016 Rishi Agarwal had disclosed his total movable and immovable assets worth Rs 2.66 lakh crore and took further loan of Rs 1,925 crore".

The Congress alleged that the biggest ever bank fraud in history -- Rs 22,842 crore, happened under Modi Government and after a 5-year delay and permitting brazen embezzlement of public money, the CBI has finally registered an FIR on February 7, 2022, against Gujarat Based ABG Shipyard owned by Rishi Agarwal & others for duping 28 banks.

"Rishi Agarwal was always seen in Vibrant Gujarat Investors Summit with Modi ji (then CM of Gujarat). He was also part of the delegation led by the then CM of the state to South Korea in 2013," Vallabh said.

The party said, on November 8, 2019, the State Bank of India filed a complaint with the CBI for registration of FIR against ABG Shipyard's Rishi Agarwal & others. Despite the apparent fraud and swindling of public money, CBI, SBI & Modi Govt proceeded to complicate the entire matter in bureaucratic wrangling and file-pushing. This happened for years as the public money went down the drain and fraudsters gained, he said.

"The intriguing part is that in the complaint dated August 25, 2020, the SBI (and by implication Finance Ministry) has exonerated all the bankers," Vallabh said.

--IANS

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