Congress President Rahul Gandhi hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “not saying anything” about the alleged Rs 11,380 crore Punjab National Bank scam involving billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi, PTI reported.

Gandhi said the Prime Minister was “ignoring” the case, and added that a multi-crore scam such as this could not have taken place “without high-level protection”.

“It must have been known to the people in government beforehand,” Gandhi said. “Otherwise, it is not possible because the amount is so huge.” Gandhi asked PM Modi to explain why the scam took place and what the government was doing to make the banking system safer.

“The Prime Minister will have to come out and tell what happened and why, and how did it happen?” Gandhi told reporters after the first meeting of the Congress steering committee on Saturday. He accused the Centre of refusing to accept responsibility and alleged PM Modi was “destroying” the economy through his actions.

“The fact of the matter is that the prime minister has, through his actions, destroyed the financial system of this country, said Gandhi, adding, “He demonetised the economy, took money from people’s pockets and put it into the banking sector and now his friends and cronies are stealing it from the banking sector and the prime minister is not saying anything.”

The Congress’ Steering Committee also said the “biggest bank scam” has exposed the complete failure of “regulatory mechanism” and “fraud detection ability” of the banking sector. The party has decided to ask for a joint parliamentary probe into the case.

Meanwhile, Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi denied any links between his family and jewellery designer Nirav Modi and Gitanjali Group promoter Mehul Choksi, PTI reported.

Responding to a claim by the BJP, Singhvi said, “BJP/NDA’s cheap sense of politics has reached ludicrous and ridiculous proportions.”

BJP leader and Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman had alleged that the Nirav Modi-run Firestar Diamond International had taken on lease a property of Adwait Holdings – a company in which Singhvi’s wife is a director.