New Delhi: The Congress on Saturday alleged that bank fraud accused Amit Bhatnagar enjoyed the sustained patronage of top BJP leaders and the Gujarat government.

Bhatnagar is one of the directors of Diamond Power Infrastructure (DPIL), which has been accused of fraudulently receiving credit facilities from a consortium of 11 banks by submitting false stock statements, extensively utilising cash credit limits for obtaining a large number of letters of credit. DPIL declared bankruptcy in 2016, leaving behind an outstanding loan of Rs 2,654.4 crore.

Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said at a news conference: "In 51 days, 13 bank scams and counting. Even the President of India is now talking about it, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not uttered a word on this saga of corruption, cheating and connivance of his people. Why are both Modi and Amit Shah silent on bank scams? Is it to hide the misdemeanours of the ' Chhota Modis' and 'Chhota Amits' that the BJP deliberately sabotaged the functioning of Parliament for 25 days?"

Congress released several purported photographs of Bhatnagar with Modi, Gujarat minister Saurabh Patel, Union minister Piyush Goyal, former Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel and current chief minister Vijay Rupani.

Describing Bhatnagar as one of the chief financers of the BJP in Vadodara, Khera said: "He is no stranger to financial frauds."

In March 2015, Bhatnagar had been arrested and released on bail by the central excise for alleged fraudulent misuse of CenVAT credit and evading excise duty worth Rs 40 crore.

In July 2016, another complaint against DPIL was filed for allegedly selling off shares owned by a woman.