All allegations leveled against Sushma Swaraj are baseless: Arun Jaitley

New Delhi

Two days after the raging controversy broke out regarding Sushma Swaraj’s “help” to scam-tainted Lalit Modi, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, who holds the External Affairs portfolio, and Home Minister Rajnath Singh met in the Home Ministry and discussed the entire issue for an hour before Singh and Jaitley held a press conference.

“All allegations leveled are baseless. Her (Swaraj) statement and that of the party President (show) that whatever she did was with good intentions.”

“She acted bona fide. The entire government and the party are one on the issue. There should be no doubt on this,” Jaitley said with Singh by his side.

Jaitley’s defence of his cabinet colleague comes two days after party President Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh had asserted that Swaraj had acted on humanitarian considerations in the matter of helping former IPL boss Lalit Modi get travel documents from Britain.

Modi, former IPL boss, has taken refuge in London for over five years after the Enforcement Directorate levelled money laundering and other charges against him involving an amount of Rs 1,700 crore and wants him for investigations in India in the 2009 IPL scam.

Asked whether the Enforcement Directorate would appeal against the Delhi High Court decision quashing the revocation of passport, Jaitley said “the matter of passport comes within the jurisdiction of passport authorities. They will decide.”

To another question whether the ED will continue its probe in the Lalit Modi matter, he said the ED has investigated several cases against the person concerned (Modi) and has issued a number of show cause notices as part of its quasi judicial functions.

Asked whether Swaraj had acted on her own to help Modi, Jaitley said all ministers in charge of various departments were capable of taking decisions and in all decisions taken by the government there is a collective responsibility.

The Finance Minister also said that a “light blue corner” notice has been issued against Modi in 2010 and that continues to be valid even today.

Inputs from PTI