Congress' overseas chairman Sam Pitroda dubs Nirav Modi arrest as chain of event

Sam Pitroda, a close confidant of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, on Friday described the arrest of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi in London as an "event" and said the courts will the decide such cases. He was replying to a question on Nirav Modi during an exclusive interview to ANI.

Asked about the BJP charge that most of the economic offenders got freebies and easy loans due to political pressure during the UPA government and that the current BJP-led dispensation made stricter laws, he said, "Look, I don't buy all this crap. All I say is event-based politics does not make sense. This is an event. Nirav Modi is an event."

Pitroda, also the chairman of Overseas Indian National Congress, said, "I am talking more about the holistic approach which is inclusion, which is embedded in what kind of nation you want to build. Whether one fellow went abroad with Rs five thousand-crore loan or seven thousand-crore loans....Fine, it is important. But this is not embedded in nation-building. Today, the crisis is really embedded in two things -- inclusion and do I really want a nation where everybody is divided."

Replying to questions on economic offenders, he said, "Let the courts decide. The court will decide it. What is the issue?" When pointed out that criminality lay because people took Indian money away to foreign shores, Pitroda said, "Let the courts decide....there is enough power in courts here. They are wise enough to decide. Let them handle it."

Nirav Modi was arrested by the Scotland Yard in connection with a loan default case in India on Tuesday afternoon (local time). He was produced before a London court which sent him to the jail after rejecting his plea for bail. He will be in the judicial custody till March 29.