NDA blames UPA, UPA blames NDA- Rs 6,712 crore fraud PNB

New Delhi, March 06: Refuting the Congress party's allegation that the NDA government helped jeweller Jatin Mehta, who has duped banks including the PNB -- of Rs 6,712 crore, flee from India, the BJP on Tuesday said he not only acquired "toxic assets" but also flew out of India during the UPA regime.

"Most of the advances or Letters of Credit (LCs) or all the loans were taken between September 2010 and February 2013. If there was lack of due diligence or connivance in the banking sector to make these advances available, that was entirely during the previous UPA regime," Union Urban Development Minister Hardeep Singh Puri told a press conference.

Puri was responding to Congress allegations that the alleged jeweller duped banks of Rs 6,712 crore during the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime and the Prime Minister was silent over the fraud.

"Many of these loans, bulk of these, took place during UPA 2. There were some loans of earlier vintage which go back to UPA 1," the Minister said.