AMN /
Defying party line on issue of Sushma Swaraj and Vasundhara Raje extending help to former IPL chief Lalit Modi, BJP MP R K Singh today said that any help to a Bhogoda (absconder) is legally and morally wrong. He urged the government to take all measures to bring him back to India to face the law. Singh’s strong comments are the first public criticism by a ruling party MP against the help extended to Lalit Modi by External Affairs Minister Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Raje.
“Helping a ‘bhagoda’ (fugitive) is wrong, no matter who helped him… he (Modi) should be brought back and made to face trial,” said Mr Singh. He also said the government that is led by his party must appeal to have Mr Modi’s Indian passport revoked.
Mr Modi founded the multi-billion dollar and glamorous Indian Premier League in 2008, but left for London in 2010 after getting entangled in a slew of cases that linked India’s richest sports league to tax evasion and money-laundering.
The government cancelled Mr Modi’s passport in 2010, but the Delhi High Court revoked that decision in August last year.
The issue has snowballed into a major political storm for the Narendra Modi government even though BJP has defended both the leaders. Singh, a former Home Secretary, told reporters in New Delhi that Lalit Modi had been evading judicial warrants and summons and he was clearly a fugitive and any help given to him or any meeting with him was wrong. He did not name either Swaraj or Raje.