Nirav Modi, Choksi, Mallya fled after realising new, alert chowkidaar has come to power: Rajanath

Diamantaires Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, and liquor baron Vijay Mallya fled the country only after 2014 because they realised that a "new and alert chowkidaar" has come to power, Union Minister Rajnath Singh said Thursday, as he slammed the Congress for doling out loans to "such people" during its rule.

At a poll meeting in Gautam Buddh Nagar, the senior BJP leader also claimed the opposition parties were wrongly accusing the Narendra Modi government of helping the trio flee India, while in fact it was the BJP-led NDA dispensation that brought a special law to deal with fugitive economic offenders.

"The Congress alleges that Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya left the country after the BJP came to power, that is Prime Minister Narendra Modi helped them escape.... But listen to this carefully, Rs 18 lakh crore were given as loans to the public from 1947 to 2008.

"But during Congress' rule, Rs 52 lakh crore were given in loans from 2008 till 2014 only on instructions from them (Congress) to people who left this country," he told the gathering.

"They robbed the country at will. Nirav Modi, Mallya, Choksi did not leave till the Congress was in power. But only when they realised that a 'naya, chaukanna chowkidaar' (new and alert watchman) has come, they fled," Singh said.

The BJP leader asserted that all those who "robbed" Indian banks will be "dragged" back to the country.

Hitting out at Congress president Rahul Gandhi over his proposed minimum income scheme guarantee scheme that promises Rs 72,000annually to five crore families in order to lift them out of poverty, Singh said, "The public had elected Indira Gandhi (as PM), then came Rajiv Gandhi and now Rahul Gandhi is also talking about uprooting poverty."