Centre trying to protect Lalit Modi: Congress

IANSNew DelhiThe Congress yesterday accused the Modi government of trying to protect former Indian Premier League chief Lalit Modi by seeking his extradition and not ‘deportation’ from Britain which, it said, was an eight-10 year process.“The Modi government has attempted to bury the ‘Modigate’ scandal by asserting that the deportation of Indian fugitive Lalit Modi is not possible. Both inside and outside parliament, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj have maintained that the only option is to proceed with the extradition of Lalit Modi,” Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala told the media yesterday.“The Modi government has taken this stance with the full knowledge that the extradition process is lengthy enough to last eight-10 years, by which time public memory will move away from the Modigate affair,” he added.The Congress also accused the BJP-led government of not putting in public domain various communications exchanged between the then finance minister P Chidambaram and the British government for the immediate deportation of Lalit Modi for prosecution under Indian laws.“Chidambaram wrote three letters dated July 8, 2013, August 21, 2013 and March 14, 2014 for Lalit Modi’s deportation instead of extradition. The letters were written to George Osborne, the chancellor of exchequer, UK,” Surjewala added.The Congress on Monday released two communications to the media, one dated July 17, 2013, written by Osborne in reply to Chidambaram’s letter and the other dated August 21, 2013, written by Chidambaram to Osborne in response.But the letters written by Chidambaram to Osborne on July 8, 2013 and March 14, 2014 were not shared with the media.