Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday pointed fingers at Congress veteran Ahmed Patel and the Gandhi family in connection with the AugustaWestland VVIP helicopter payoffs scam while finance minister Arun Jaitley sought to directly corner Rahul Gandhi in the case.

Their comments came after media reports said the Enforcement Directorate’s fourth supplementary chargesheet, filed on Thursday, names “AP” and “FAM” among the deal’s beneficiaries and explains that the first abbreviation refers to “Ahmed Patel” and the second to “family”.

“You will remember that your chowkidar (watchman) has brought back chopper scam accused from Dubai,” Modi told a rally in Dehradun.

“Michel mama (alleged British middleman Christian Michel, extradited last December) and other middlemen were questioned by the agencies over several weeks. Based on this a chargesheet has been filed in court.

“I saw in the media that one of the people who had sought kickbacks is ‘AP’ and the other is ‘FAM’. The same chargesheet states that ‘AP’ means ‘Ahmed Patel’ and ‘FAM’ means ‘family’. Now, you tell me which family Ahmed Patel is close to?”

Michel told a Delhi court on Friday that he had not named anyone in his statements to the ED.

Modi said: “The Congress sets new records in corruption every time. The hallmark of the Congress is that during its rule, corruption kept accelerating and vikas (development) was on ventilator.”

The Congress termed the chargesheet “a cheap election stunt” and accused the government of manufacturing lies and the ED of leaking “a single uncertified page” of a purported chargesheet.

Spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said: “The Modi government lost all litigations against AgustaWestland and Finmeccanica (the Italian company of which AgustaWestland was a subsidiary) and yet it is whipping a dead horse to defame Congress leaders and derive political mileage in the elections.”

An angry Patel said: “The chowkidar and his disciples have made allegations without any basis or proof and will have to pay for this.”

He accused Modi of “gutter-level politics” and said: “The dalals (brokers) of Rafale and demonetisation can’t survive now. This diversionary trick won’t save them. The people will teach them a lesson.”

Jaitley, addressing the media, questioned Rahul’s silence on charges that he said were based on “documentary evidence”.

“Arguments of probity in the public space demand more answers. Are ‘RG’, ‘AP’ and ‘FAM’ fictional characters or were they in a position to influence the deal?” he said.

According to reports, an earlier Italian probe into the deal had named an “RG” among the beneficiaries.

“How come every time there is a controversial defence deal and evidence is collected, names close to the Congress party’s first family start appearing?” Jaitley said.

“The public neither forgets nor forgives the corrupt. Silence is never an answer to documentary evidence of corruption. The right to silence is available to an accused, not to a prime ministerial aspirant.”