MUMBAI: A day after the row over Sushma Swaraj and Lalit Modi erupted, the former IPL boss’ lawyer Mehmood M Abdi defended him and the External Affairs Minister, saying she only “did her duty” by facilitating Modi’s travel document and that she “could not be blamed”.
Defending Modi, the lawyer said at a press conference here, “Which court has decided that Lalit Modi as offender and fugitive? He stays within knowledge of everyone in the United Kingdom.”
Stating that no blue corner notice was ever issued against Lalit Modi, he said “non-issues have been blown out of proportion.” When asked who fabricated the blue corner notice against Modi, Abdi said, “It was done by (sidelined BCCI chief) N Srinivasan and his party.”
Defending Sushma Swaraj, Abdi said she had done only her duty and sought to know how someone could be blamed for intervening on humanitarian grounds. Abdi also alleged that the recent controversy was a conspiracy to destabilise a “popularly elected, scam free government”.
He alleged that then finance and foreign ministers in the UPA government had tried to pressure the UK government to prosecute Modi.
He identified the ministers involved as Salman Khurshid, P Chidambaram and Shashi Tharoor. “I have obtained this information under UK’s RTI,” Abdi said. “The UPA was behind Modi because he exposed Shashi Tharoor. He has been hounded since he mentioned Sunanda Pushkar’s sweat equity in the Kochi team.”
Abdi also downplayed reports about Sushma Swaraj’s husband’s legal advice to Modi and Modi helping her son secure admission in London. “Those might be social obligations. There was no quid pro quo,” he maintained.
Abdi also maintained that doctors treating Modi’s wife had insisted on his physical presence beside her in Portugal and claimed that Modi’s picture showing him partying with actor Paris Hilton were older and not when he was with his wife.
