Congress claims PMO, Finance Minister shielding IL&FS in Rs 91,000 cr scam

The Congress on Wednesday alleged that the Infrastructure and Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS), which owes Rs 91,000 crore to banks, to financial institutions and ordinary investors is being shielded by Prime Minister's Office and the finance minister.

Congress leader Manish Tewari said that the BJP government is pressuring the financial institutions. "The LIC, SBI, Central Bank of India and the NHAI have been asked to bail out this company which has become absolutely sick. The reason why it is happening is because they want to bail out the foreign investors," said Tewari.

He said that the equity structure is such that the LIC holds 25.34 per cent of the company's equity, the Central Bank of India holds 7.67 per cent of its equity, State Bank of India holds 6.42 per cent of the equity, two foreign investors -- one from Japan and the other from Abu Dhabi hold about 35-36 per cent of the equity, while the rest is held by certain other Indian and foreign investors.

Tewari called it the "grandfather of all scams" and said that it outweighs the money in the Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi scams. "As of March 31, 2018, it owes Rs 91,000 crore to banks, financial institutions and to ordinary investors. Rs. 91,000 crores is Mallya, Nirav Modi, and Mehul Chowksi put together multiplied by seven," he said.