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HomeOpinionWith Michel and Mallya, Modi’s Big Four target before 2019 elections has...

With Michel and Mallya, Modi’s Big Four target before 2019 elections has got a flying start

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Narendra Modi is leveraging India’s weight and presence abroad in bringing several absconders to justice.

The Narendra Modi government Monday successfully won the right to extradite fugitive economic offender Vijay Mallya to India from the UK, where he has been living for the last three years.

Last week, Delhi persuaded Dubai to deport businessman Rajeev Saxena, an accused in the Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland helicopter case, and lobbyist Deepak Talwar who allegedly misused Rs 90 crore brought in through the foreign funding route. They have since been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate.

In December, the alleged key middleman of the AgustaWestland deal, Christian Michel James, was extradited to India.


Also read: Michel extradition & Dubai princess: Inside story of how ‘James Bond’ Ajit Doval guided CBI


The Modi government is certainly leaving no stone unturned in sending out the“na khaaoonga, na khaane doonga” message. I will not be corrupt and I will not let anybody be corrupt, the Prime Minister had said early on in his tenure.

Certainly, the plot is thickening. The ED’s special prosecutor Davinder Pal Singh has told the court that it had got some documents from Mauritius detailing a link between Michel and Rajeev Saxena. Evidently, the ED has found “ownership/control” by Saxena of a company in which “proceeds of crime” were parked by a company owned by Michel.

And then, there are Mehul Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi, both of whom have been absconding for several months. Choksi is accused of defrauding PNB for over Rs 13,000 crore and has since taken citizenship of Antigua & Barbuda.

The government is putting its full weight behind extradition of both Choksi and Modi, with India’s high commissioner to Antigua & Barbuda V. Mahalingam saying that just because he has taken a foreign passport doesn’t mean that he is not an Indian citizen.


Also read: From Vijay Mallya to Nirav Modi, tycoons on the run to play pivotal role in election


Meanwhile, Nirav Modi’s sprawling 33,000 square feet bungalow facing the sea in Alibaug, the playground of the rich in Maharashtra, has been demolished on orders of the government. Raigad district collector Suryawanshi has just discovered that the bungalow has violated coastal regulation zone norms.

As for the extradition of Vijay Mallya, it is certainly significant that the British home secretary has signed the file. Even if Mallya appeals in the high court and later in the supreme court, the fact is that the British government – pending the decision of its courts – has taken a political decision not to contest a request by the Modi government on Mallya.

The Mallya extradition is bound to have a ripple effect. If the PM’s determination to get the Big Four economic fugitives – Mallya, Michel, Modi and Choksi – back home pays off, it could have a big effect on an election that hardly seems to be going the Opposition’s way, at least at the moment.

The Mamata Banerjee Vs Modi standoff isn’t cutting any ice yet, even if it consolidates Bengal’s perception that Didi is being bullied. Priyanka Gandhi has just returned from abroad and will only now start campaigning in UP. Akhilesh Yadav and Behenji Mayawati are so quiet that you can hear a mouse roar.

Of course, things can change overnight. In an interview with Sunday Guardian,’ Christian Michel, speaking through his lawyers, has said the CBI knows that he has never met or spoken to Sonia Gandhi or her son, Rahul, and has leaked false stories to the press.


Also read: Why Dubai is no longer a safe haven for Indian fugitives


But the CBI has now a new director, the mild-mannered R.K. Shukla, and he has been bumped up from Madhya Pradesh, where he was a police chief and where the BJP was in power for a full 15 years until it recently lost power.

Do you get the impression that the PM is tightening the noose? Certainly, he is leveraging India’s weight and presence abroad in bringing several absconders to justice.

Modi can certainly pat himself on the back for leading this effort. He will now hope that the rest of India also does the same.

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3 COMMENTS

  1. Anyone who has lived in India, knows the “profile” of a typical BJP voter (or erstwhile Jan Sangh’s). They are “business people” — from small shop keepers to right up the ladder, big business tycoons. Again, anyone who has lived in India, KNOWS that all businessmen, all the time, are making money by SOME sleight of hand or another. 50,000 rupees do not become 80,00,000,00 (80 crores) just like that.

    That means, AALL the leaders of the BJP must oversee and overlook the “khane ka kaam” that their voters are doing all the time, otherwise these businessmen-voters will not allow those individuals to become “leaders” in the BJP.

    Same holds true for Mr Modi — BY DEFAULT. That, Mr Modi is aware of, despite pious claims, and is OVERSEEING & OVERLOOKING — kaun-kaun kitna-kitna kha raha hai. Period. His high sounding claim of “na khane doonga” is pure balderdash.

    As for the first part of his claim — “na khaoonga,” I must say I have my doubts. These doubts have arisen lately when I got to know that he uses a Mont Blanc that costs a lakh of rupees, and other branded items costing similar amounts. His gold-thread suit costed 10 lakhs. Quite possibly these items were not accepted as “gifts” from unknown people, but as the highest officer of the country he was entitled to order the government to buy them for him. That’s possible. But doesn’t it bracket him with people who have a liking for money and things that money can buy?! OSHO used to call himself a saint, but he had 100 Rolce Royces in his garages. (Please correct if my spellings are wrong; I’m talking of that legendary British motorcar.) Then, for indirect “na khaoonga” part of Mr Modi’s claim, someone can argue about the crores spent on his unnecessary photograph in all government ads. and his hundred odd foreign trips, many of them possibly unnecessary. And hello! What about Anil Ambani?! His Rafale dole of 30000 crores, was it ALL going to be spent for some charitable cause?!

    Jyoti Malhotra is a senior and seasoned journalist. It is disappointing that this statement of Mr Modi, na khaoonga na khane doonga has passed her journalistic-glower without a comment, and not just that, she has based an entire narrative on it which puts Mr Modi in a benign light. This, when elections are nearing, can be called what?!

  2. Really nice if Modi government is trying to capture and bring these people back to India. Because there is a negative image of Modi government among people about this case. And if government try to capture them it will give a solid response to opposition parties.

  3. Each fugitive who is dragged back, complete with diamond ear studs, to face the legal / judicial system, is good news. That undoes their flight in the first place, attributable to a little carelessness, perhaps. However, at the end of term, it is difficult to recreate the pristine nature of the inauguration. Think of the journey the Ganga essays, from Gaumukh to Sand Heads in the Bay of Bengal. Those who were hoping for some last minute magical transformation are likely to be disappointed. The Budget, itself, added up to just five hundred rupees per month to farm families.

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