Lalit Modi case: Jaitley comes out to defend Sushma

New Delhi, June 16

The controversy surrounding External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s help to tainted former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi to seek British travel documents took a new twist on Tuesday with the surfacing of a document in which Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje allegedly backed his immigration plea. Earlier in the day, Jaitley came out in defence of Swaraj, saying all charges are baseless.

The document, whose authenticity has not been confirmed yet, came into circulation just hours after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley backed Swaraj saying whatever she had done was in good faith and bona fide.

Titled “Witness Statement”, the document, said to have emanated from the Lalit Modi camp, had a confidentiality clause in which Raje purportedly supported Modi's case but did not want it to be revealed to Indian authorities.

Late in the evening, Raje distanced herself from the document saying "I do not know what documents they are talking about."

Asked if it was a media trial, she said that "it is left to you to decide."

The Raje episode came as a further embarrassment to the BJP and its government which have been battling the first major political crisis in more than a year since it assumed office.

Kailash Nath Bhat, Rajasthan BJP spokesperson, however, questioned the authenticity of the document saying there were no signatures of Raje and also that she had not been in touch with Modi for the last four or five years.

"This is being done to malign the image of the chief minister," he said.

Earlier in the day, Jaitley sought to do some damage control by coming out in defence of Sushma Swaraj two days after the raging controversy broke out triggering a political storm.

Swaraj, Jaitley and Home Minister Rajnath Singh met in the Home Ministry and discussed the entire issue for an hour before Singh and Jaitley held a press conference.

"All allegations levelled are baseless. Her (Swaraj) statement and that of the party president (show) that whatever she did was with good intentions. 

"She acted bona fide. The entire government and the party are one on the issue. There should be no doubt on this," Jaitley said with Singh by his side.

Jaitley's defence of his cabinet colleague comes two days after party president Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh had asserted that Swaraj had acted on humanitarian considerations in the matter of helping former IPL boss Lalit Modi get travel documents from Britain.

Modi, former IPL boss, has taken refuge in London for over five years after the Enforcement Directorate levelled money laundering and other charges against him involving an amount of Rs 1,700 crore and wants him for investigations in India in the 2009 IPL scam.

Speculation has been rife over the "silence" of Jaitley after the controversy broke out on Sunday over Swaraj's help to Lalit Modi.

There have been reports that the Finance Ministry and the External Affairs Ministry are involved in a blame game over who should appeal against the Delhi High Court order quashing the revocation of Lalit Modi's passport in August last year.

PM rescuing black money man: Rahul

Meanwhile, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi continued his attack on the Prime Minister saying he was rescuing Lalit Modi, “a man of black money”. The Prime Minister had promised to bring black money and put Rs 15 lakh in everyone's account.

“Narendra Modi is rescuing Lalit Modi, the black money man. He is the black money man in Indian cricket,” Gandhi told reporters in Chhattisgarh.

He made light of Jaitley's defence of Swaraj saying “if he does not defend then who will do it”.

“Sushmaji is nobody in the government. It is only Narendra Modi, who is running the government and the country,” he said. — PTI