After chairing the first meeting of the party's Steering Committee, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s silence on the Nirav Modi fraud case.

Gandhi also alleged that the scam in reality involved over Rs 22,000 crore, as against the Rs 11,400 crore value declared by agencies investigating the case.

This Rs 22,000 Crore scam could not have been executed without a high level of protection. People in the government must have known beforehand, otherwise it is not possible. PM will have to come forward and answer questions.

Gandhi chaired the first meeting of the party's Steering Committee, formed after dissolving the Central Working Committee, to finalise the schedule of plenary session.

Chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party, Sonia Gandhi, former prime minister Manmohan Singh, besides other leaders like A K Antony, Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge attended the meeting.

Gandhi had dissolved the Congress Working Committee and formed a 34-member Steering Committee to work in its place till a new CWC was set up.

The party's plenary session, to be attended by all AICC delegates who elected the new Congress chief, is likely to be held before 5 March when the second part of Budget Session of Parliament starts.

While all the past CWC members are part of the new committee, some permanent invitees like Amarinder Singh, Vilas Muttemwar, RK Dhawan, Shivajirao Deshmukh, MV Rajasekharan and Mohsina Kidwai, and all special invitees have been dropped from the new panel.

As per the party's Constitution, the 25-member CWC has 12 elected members and 11 nominated members, besides the Congress president and the chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party.