 "Mehul Choksi")
In the midst of a raging controversy over the Rs 114 billion banking scam, a video has surfaced of Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosting fugitive Gujarati jeweller Mehul Choksi at his official residence in 2015.
The video clip put out by online news portal GoNews shows Choksi, Chairman and MD, Gitanjali Group, seated among the audience at the Prime Minister's 7, RCR residence, now called 7 Lok Kalyan Marg.
The event, which took place on November 5, 2015, was to unveil three schemes aimed at dampening physical demand for gold in the country and tap into an estimated 20,000 tonnes of the yellow metal lying idle with households and institutions in India.
"People should take advantage of the golden opportunity to help India march to a golden period," Modi said, announcing the schemes.
"A buyer will go to the biggest showroom to buy jewellery but will get it checked by his family jeweller. Our Mehul Bhai is sitting here. He would know, the buyer would go to his own jeweller to get it checked," Modi says with his trademark laughter in the video.
