New Delhi, April 9: The Congress today asked Narendra Modi to immediately sack Y.S. Chowdary, a junior minister in the Union council, following a court's non-bailable warrant against him in a case of fraud.

The party seized on the warrant against Chowdary, popularly known as Sujana Chowdary, to link the presence of "tainted ministers" in the government to the BJP's decision to appoint "tainted leaders" as state unit chiefs, as it recalled a host of scandals over the past couple of years.

But the Prime Minister did not act, spokesperson Manish Tiwari told a media conference, despite his claims on probity in public life.

Tiwari said a Hyderabad court has asked police to arrest Chowdary, junior science and technology minister, and produce him before April 26. "The non-bailable warrant was issued against the minister after he repeatedly ignored summons to be present in the court. This is the step before pronouncing somebody an absconder," he said.

Chowdary, the Congress spokesperson added, faces serious charges of cheating, fraud and wilfully avoiding the law. "His Sujana Universal Industries took a loan from a Mauritius bank and defaulted on repayment. If the Prime Minister has even an iota of morality, he should sack the minister. Such a person has no business to be in the council of ministers."

The allegations relate to a loan of Rs 106 crore taken in 2012.

The warrant was issued on Thursday. Chowdary later clarified he had not secured the loan from the Mauritius Commercial Bank and that his group firm - Sujana Universal Industries - stood as a guarantor to the loan obtained by a step-down subsidiary.

Chowdary said there was a difference between default and fraud and the issue would be sorted out soon, and claimed he could not appear in the court because of his busy schedule.

But Tiwari was merciless in his criticism, arguing that nobody should be surprised at Vijay Mallya's "escape" if ministers in the Union government faced charges of bank fraud.

"We have raised several issues - Lalit-gate (the Lalit Modi controversy), Vyapam, the DDCA scam and the Panama papers. But the Prime Minister did not act," he said. "This is the measure of the BJP's political morality and hypocrisy on the issue of corruption."

He went on to analyse the appointment of B.S. Yeddyurappa and Keshav Prasad Maurya as the state unit heads of Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh, pointing out that both were embroiled in serious cases.

"Yeddyurappa had to be removed as chief minister when he was found guilty by the lokayukta. He had to go to jail. Maurya has himself admitted in his election affidavit that he faced 10 cases, including forgery and murder. These are the symbols of the BJP's clean politics."