Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday attacked the Centre over the RBI action against Paytm Payments Bank and claimed that regulatory institutions are being "destroyed" under the Modi government.

In a major action against Paytm Payments Bank (PPBL), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday directed the lender to stop accepting deposits or top-ups in any customer accounts, wallets, FASTags and other instruments after February 29.

In a post in Hindi on X, Gandhi said, "Paytm fraud is the biggest example of how the government has brought the country on the path of destruction by finishing the independence of institutions." Regulatory institutions such as SEBI and RBI remained silent spectators to the fraud of Paytm which had given full-page advertisements in newspapers pictures of the prime minister, the former Congress president said.

"Such political patronage has saved many companies that became big by looting the hard-earned money of people. The collapse of regulatory institutions guarantees the public being looted," Gandhi said.

Vadra said that Paytm made a lot of profit due to demonetisation and according to the advertisements, the government's help was also involved in this. When the company launched its shares at a very high price, the common middle class Indians bought them in large numbers, she said.

"Yesterday, suddenly the RBI banned the functioning of this company due to financial irregularities," the Congress general secretary said.

Paytm shares have fallen by 75 per cent and according to reports, there has been a loss of around Rs 18,000 crore, she said.

"This is the loss of earnings of thousands and lakhs of honest Indians who bought shares of this company. All the institutions of the country are being destroyed under Modi ji's rule. If SEBI and RBI were independent today, this money of common Indians would could have been saved," Vadra said.

The RBI, in a statement, has said its directions to Paytm follow persistent non-compliance and continued material supervisory concerns.

On March 11, 2022, the RBI had barred PPBL from onboarding new customers with immediate effect.

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