The Congress, in the meanwhile has stepped up the pressure on Vasundhara Raje, demanding her resignation at the earliest.
Even as Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje finds herself in a spot, the Bharatiya Janata Party appears to have distanced itself from her involvement. Sources reveal that Raje has now called upon party President Amit Shah to discuss the matter further.
Picking up where Chidambaram left off, Congress Spokesperson Randeep Surjewala asserted that Sushma Swaraj had breached several norms by not consulting the ED or any other body that had earlier refused to grant travel documents to Lalit Modi. He asserted that Modi had later sent a “thank you” email to Sushma Swaraj and her husband.
In a press briefing, Former Minister P Chidambaram stated that in 2010 the Enforcement Directorate was probing into Lalit Modi’s matter and had issued showcause notices as he was found to be living in the UK without a valid passport.
The letters exchanged are the best evidence and the contents will be known when the letters are made public. I will tell you the gist - Lalit Modi was being investigated under the law of india, his passport had been cancelled and he had no right to travel outside India and be in the UK.
– P Chidambaram
Chidamabaram also questioned who it was that had issued a fresh passport to Lalit Modi, even after his passport had been cancelled in 2011. At the same time, he defended former PM Manmohan Singh and the UPA government, saying that they were not silent on the matter. Instead, he mounted an attack on the NDA government saying that if indeed Lalit Modi wanted to see his ailing wife, he “could have been given a temporary permit.”
Times Now reports that even as the ED is ready to probe the expose, the Ministry of External Affairs is set to revoke Lalit Modi’s passport.