Lalit Modi row: Congress targets PM Modi

The party alleged that External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj was just playing a 'second fiddle' to Narendra Modi.

"Not only did Sushma Swaraj had client counsel relationship with Lalit Modi, but PM Modi also had close association with Lalit Modi," Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala said while addressing a press conference here.

"The PM had close association with Lalit Modi, EAM was just playing a second fiddle to him," he said.

Oppositions have mounted up pressure on the Narendra Modi government to sack Sushma Swaraj if she does not resign herself after the External Affairs Minister has been caught up in a huge controversy over helping helping Lalit Modi, who is accused of financial irregularities in the game, procure travel documents in the UK last year.

The External Affairs Minister on Sunday defended herself and said she helped convey his request to the British envoy 'taking a humanitarian view.'

In a series of tweets, Swaraj had said, "Sometime in July 2014 Lalit Modi spoke to me that his wife was suffering from Cancer and her surgery was fixed for 4th Aug in Portugal. He told me that he had to be present in the Hospital to sign the consent papers. He informed me that he had applied for travel documents in London and UK Government was prepared to give him the travel documents."

She had wrote: "However, they were restrained by a UPA Government communication that this will spoil Indo-UK relations. Taking a humanitarian view, I conveyed to the British High Commissioner that 'British Government should examine the request of Lalit Modi as per British rules and regulations."

"If the British Government chooses to give travel documents to Lalit Modi, that will not spoil our bilateral relations. Keith Vaz also spoke to me and I told him precisely what I told the British High Commissioner. I genuinely believe that in a situation such as this, giving emergency travel documents to an Indian citizen cannot and should not spoil relations between the two countries," she had said.

Lalit Modi has been in the UK since 2010 when the India Premier League was caught in a huge controversy over an alleged betting scandal.

Lalit Modi's passport was revoked in March that year.

However, Lalit Modi was given a visa after Indian-origin British MP Keith Vaz recommended his name.

According to the British media, Vaz said Swaraj had pressurised UK's top immigration official to grant British travel papers to Lalit Modi.