New Delhi, (The Telegraph):  The Congress has sought to resurrect the Lalit Modi scandal, alleging that the Narendra Modi government has conspired to keep him out of India for the next eight to 10 years.

The build-up is being seen as an ominous sign for the winter session of Parliament that will begin next month. The monsoon session was almost washed out because of the uproar over the Lalit scandal that had sucked in foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje.

Levelling the grave charge that the Modi government misled the country by misrepresenting facts in Parliament, the Congress has released a letter from former finance minister P. Chidambaram to his British counterpart, and the reply to it, to nail Sushma's "lie" that there was no official engagement between the two governments and that the Congress leader had written letters owing to personal enmity.

The letter attributed to the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, and sent to Chidambaram on July 17, 2013, says: "I understand that officials from Foreign & Commonwealth Office discussed this matter (deportation of Lalit Modi) with the Indian High Commission in London shortly after our Economic and Financial Dialogue. I register the seriousness with which you take this case and would be happy to ask FCO officials to liaise further with the High Commission if that would be of use."

The letter adds: "I am copying this letter to the Foreign Secretary."

Today, Congress communications chief Randeep Surjewala said: "Swaraj said in Parliament that Chidambaram had shared no correspondence or documentation that he wrote to his counterpart with ministry of external affairs and the high commission. The ministry had no knowledge of any official communication. This white lie is exposed."

Probably this is why the government had ignored repeated demands to release communications between Chidambaram and Osborne, he added.

Surjewala challenged finance minister Arun Jaitley's contention that there has to be a criminal case against a person for deportation from Britain and that extradition was the only option.

"Deportation in the UK was clearly possible under the Immigration and Asylum Act, 1999 (Sections 9 and 10). On 14.05.2014, that law was replaced by the Immigration Act, 2014, whose Section 10 clearly said there was no requirement for a pending criminal proceeding in the home country for an illegal immigrant to be deported," the Congress spokesperson added.

Surjewala said Jaitley had anyway admitted that an FIR from 2010 and a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act from 2012 were pending against Lalit.

Chidambaram's letter dwells on deportation, insisting the Indian government did not want extradition. The letter pointed out that a number of Indian nationals allegedly found to be overstaying in the UK had been deported.

The letter said: "The Indian High Commission, after verifying the Indian identity of the individuals, issued Emergency Certificates (ECs) to enable their travel back to India. As many as 2,784 ECs have reportedly been issued in the last five years to facilitate the deportation of individuals identified by the UK authorities. If this is the usual practice, there is no reason why the case of Lalit Modi should be dealt with differently."

He alleged that the Modi government finally initiated the extradition process only to ensure Lalit's freedom for the next eight to 10 years. "While no appeal is allowed against a deportation order, Modi can go to the high court of Britain even if the lower court allows his extradition," he said.

Asked if the Congress would again raise this matter in the winter session of Parliament, Surjewala replied in the affirmative.

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