Congress President Rahul Gandhi recently alleged that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was silent on the Rs 127 billion PNB fraud case to protect his daughter.
He tweeted, ‘It's now revealed that our Finance Minister's silence on the PNB (Punjab National Bank) scam was to protect his lawyer daughter, who was paid a large retainer by the accused just a month before the scam became public. When other law firms of the accused have been raided by the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation), why not hers?”
He also attached a tweet of a news website that said, “You know you're doing something right when the ruling dispensation tries to rebut a story that has not even been published yet.”
The website said that it was investigating a lead and had sent a questionnaire to the law firm owned by Jaitley's daughter and son-in-law, Jaiyesh Bakhshi.
Bakhshi confirmed that the retainership had been received in December 2017 but this was returned in January 2018.
He stated, “We state that in December 2017, Chambers of Jaitley & Bakhshi were approached by M/s Geetanjali Gems Limited with a request for a retainer to represent them in their litigation and advisory matters… However, before any legal work could be sent to us, a news item appeared in the media with regard to their involvement in a banking scam. We therefore felt it appropriate to unilaterally cancel their engagement and return their retainer.”
