Purnea: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday took potshots at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "Main Bhi Chowkidar" campaign, calling him a gatekeeper who stood guard for the wealth of the rich.

Modi and his partymen have launched the 'Main Bhi Chowkidar' (I too am a watchman) campaign to blunt the Opposition's, especially the Congress's, 'chowkidar chor hai (watchman is a thief) slogan.

"What type of people employ chowkidars outside their homes? Have you seen a chowkidar deployed at the gates of a common man's house?" Gandhi asked the gathering here.

Addressing his maiden rally in Bihar upon the announcement of the Lok Sabha polls, Gandhi said Modi treated and addressed Anil Ambani, Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi "and others like them as bhai" while "he calls common people like you as only mitron (friends)".

"He made promises of Rs 15 lakh into the accounts of all the poor, two crore jobs in five years and waiver of loans to the farmers. Did he ever tell you why he failed to deliver on these? Has he done anything for the benefit of farmers, workers and the youth?" Gandhi asked.

"The Congress, on the other hand, promised loan waiver for farmers and did so within a fortnight of its governments being formed in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan," he claimed.

He also said if the Congress-led alliance came to power in the state, "it will draw a minimum income line and a sum of money will be automatically deposited into the accounts of those who were below this line".

Referring to demonetisation, the Congress president said if its stated purpose was eradication of black money, why were the common people made to undergo such great difficulties.

"Why the savings of women made over the years for difficult times were taken away from them in the name of demonetisation? If this government can waive loans worth Rs 3.5 lakh crore of the rich, why can he not provide much-needed relief to farmers?" Gandhi asked.

 

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New Delhi (PTI): The CBI has arrested Kamlesh Parekh, a fugitive wanted in a 10-year-old Rs 2,672 crore bank fraud case, after his extradition from the UAE, officials said on Saturday.

Parekh, wanted in the bank fraud case filed against Shree Ganesh Jewellery House (I) Ltd, Kolkata, was extradited from the UAE on Friday, they said.

The CBI had registered the case in 2016 against the company and others for allegedly cheating a consortium of 25 banks to the tune of Rs 2,672 crore.

“The agency had chargesheeted Parekh, the promoter of the company who had been absconding since the probe began, on December 31, 2022,” a CBI spokesperson said in a statement.

“An open-ended non-bailable warrant was issued against him in 2019, while a Red Corner Notice was issued through Interpol in 2024. The authorities in the UAE detained him on the basis of the said notice after which he was extradited to India,” the statement said.