Lalit Modi-Sushma Swaraj row: I have done no wrong, says Salman Khurshid | Zee News
Last Updated: Tuesday, June 16, 2015 - 13:17
New Delhi: A day after his name was dragged into the ongoing Lalit Modi-Sushma Swaraj controversy,
Congress leader and former UPA minister
Salman Khurshid on Tuesday denied that he tried to scuttle the former
IPL chief's chances of staying in the UK.
“What have I done? Nobody put pressure on me, and no request was entertained,” Khurshid was quoted as saying by the ANI.
“What am I supposed to do as a minister? Help a person escape or help my government?” he added.
Addressing a press conference yesterday amid the raging controversy over External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj helping Lalit Modi secure travel documents from UK for Portugal to visit his ailing wife, the ex-IPL boss' lawyer Mehmood M Abdi blamed the Congress-led UPA government for putting his client in a "mess" and said that those languishing in a "political wilderness" are attacking his client.
"Attack on Lalit Modi is by people who are in political wilderness," he said.
"Shashi Tharoor, P Chidambaram and Salman Khurshid (all ministers in erstwhile UPA government) tried to scuttle his (Lalit Modi) chances of staying in UK by unduly interfering in legal process," Abdi told the media.
Lalit Modi came to know these facts through an RTI application filed in the UK, the counsel added.
Abdi defended Swaraj and said that his client's passport case was argued in UPA's tenure and hence there was no conflict of interest (on the minister's part) though the final order came after the government at the Centre changed last year.
"Why should she save him and for what? She had done it (help in getting travel papers) for human considerations. It is a very small thing but why is it being blown out of proportion?" Abdi asked.
The genesis of the controversy was disclosure of e-mails showing that Swaraj had spoken to Indian-origin British MP Keith Vaz and UK's High Commissioner to India James Bevan favouring the grant of travel documents to Lalit Modi to go to Portugal, purportedly for his wife's cancer treatment in June last year.
Modi, who is wanted in India, has made London his home since 2010 to avoid a probe for alleged foreign exchange regulation violations in the IPL T20 cricket tournament held in South Africa in 2009. The previous UPA government had revoked his passport and had pressed for his extradition.
Visa controversy: Lalit Modi's lawyer defends stand on issue - YouTube
"Shashi Tharoor, P Chidambaram and Salman Khurshid (all ministers in erstwhile UPA government) tried to scuttle his (Lalit Modi) chances of staying in UK by unduly interfering in legal process," Abdi said.
Lalit Modi came to know these facts through RTI application filed in the UK, the ex-IPL chief's counsel added.
They tried to harass him, but in the UK the tribunal found that his passport was illegally revoked (by India) and accepted his client's contention that he was being hounded, Abdi said.
According to the lawyer, Lalit Modi's presence in Portugal was needed as his wife, who has been suffering from cancer for the last 17 years, was undergoing treatment there and hence he travelled to that country.
Defending Swaraj, he said she had done only her duty and sought to know how could someone be blamed for intervening on humanitarian grounds.
Asked why Swaraj was trying to save Lalit Modi, Abdi said, "Why should she save him and for what? She had done it (help in getting travel papers) for human considerations. It is a very small thing but why is it being blown out of proportion?"
Lashing out at those using terms like "fugitive" and "offender" to describe Lalit Modi, he told the press meet that these were legal terms and can not be used too "loosely".
Stating that no blue corner notice was ever issued against Lalit Modi, he said "non-issues have been blown out of proportion".
Taking to Twitter, Lalit Modi yesterday declared a full-blown "war" against his detractors and said that he will be making sensational disclosures "to get everything out".
Naming a number of senior UPA ministers, Modi in a series of tweets ahead of his lawyer's press conference claimed that his disclosures, which he termed as "bombshells", would implicate the "erstwhile PMO".
Apparently referring to Opposition's demand for Swaraj's resignation, he said "wrong people resignations are being asked. I can assure u now the storm is about to hit. Lots more resignations will be (sic)."
"Now finally it's my turn to get EVERYTHING OUT. THERE ARE MANY BOMBSHELLS. See for yourselves. Then judge," he tweeted.
"He alone is not accused in these notices (issued in the case related to alleged financial irregularities in IPL editions). Chairman of ICC N Srinivasan and former BCCI President Shashank Manohar, too, have received notices but why only Lalit Modi is being made a scapegoat?" he said.
Lalit Modi visa row: U.K. not to probe Labour MP Keith Vaz - The Hindu
The Commissioner for Standards examined a complaint of conflict-of-interest and dismissed it for lack of sufficient evidence.
Keith Vaz, the senior Labour party Member of Parliament who is currently in the centre of a storm over allegations that he used his public position to facilitate the travel papers of IPL founder Lalit Modi, will not be investigated by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Kathryn Hudson.
“I can confirm that we received a complaint [against Mr. Vaz] last week,” a spokesperson from the commissioner’s office told
The Hindu. “The Commissioner considered it and decided that the evidence presented did not justify an investigation.”
The identity of the complainant cannot be revealed by the office under official confidentiality rules.
The Commissioner for Standards can investigate members for breach of the Code of Conduct rules. The allegations against Mr. Vaz, who headed the powerful Home office select committee, was that he used his position at the time to pressure the visa and immigration authorities in the UK to grant Mr. Modi his papers. It is now clear that the Commissioner for Standards examined a complaint that alleged conflict-of-interest and dismissed it for lack of sufficient evidence.
Mr. Vaz has not responded publicly so far to any of the allegations.
