IAC dares govt to book Gadkari under Prevention of Corruption Act




Creating more trouble for beleaguered BJP chief Nitin Gadkari, India Against Corruption (IAC) led by RTI activist-turned-politician Arvind Kejriwal has dared the UPA government to book the opposition party president under the Prevention of Corruption Act for his alleged wrongdoings.

Talking to reporters, Kejriwal yesterday said that fresh revelations made by leading media houses on Nitin Gadkari’s alleged corporate fraud have vindicated IAC’s stand that Congress and BJP were hand in glove on corruption.

Later talking to a news channel, Kejriwal’s close aide and noted lawyer Prashant Bhushan also demanded that Gadkari be booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act for misusing his 00office as a PWD Minister and giving undue benefits to a company that loaned the firm Purti Power and Sugar Ltd controlled by him.

“Gadkari took a loan of 164 Rs crore from a company to whom he had given various benefits as a PWD Minister of Maharastra. Therefore, under the Prevention of Corruption Act, if a public servant receives any kind of gratification for himself or any other person from a company with whom he has official dealings as a public servant than that amounts to corruption under Prevention of Corruption Act,” Bhushan was quoted as saying.

Spelling trouble for Gadkari, the government yesterday decided to go into allegations of dubious funding in his companies which cast a shadow over him getting a second term as party president in December.

As embarrassing details tumbled out about the funding for Purti Power and Sugar Ltd run by Gadkari, Corporate Affairs Minister M Veerappa Moily said as the information on the issue has come in public domain, the Registrars of Companies will "definitely inquire into it".

"We have not ordered anything. It is all coming in the newspapers. Since it has come in public domain, we told our Ministry to make some discreet inquiry to find out what exactly is the matter. Are there any violations of Companies Act?" he said.

When asked whether the business dealings of Robert Vadra, the son-in-law of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, will also be scrutinised, he said the two issues were separate and there was no link between them.



Media reports have raised questions over the source of funds for Purti Power and Sugar Ltd controlled by Gadkari. Media investigations claim that major investments and large loans to Purti were made by a construction firm Ideal Road Builders (IRB) group, which had won contracts between 1995 and 1999, when Gadkari was PWD minister in Maharashtra. Gadkari has denied the allegations and offered himself and his companies to any probe.

BJP attacked the government saying its approach was "selective and prejudiced" about dealing with Gadkari issue while ignoring corruption allegations against Vadra and former Union minister Virbhadra Singh. The party said it endorses the stand of Gadkari that he was open to any investigation by any competent authority.

Adding to Gadkari's discomfiture, his party MP Ram Jethmalani demanded his resignation in the wake of corruption allegations and asked him not to seek a second term in office.

"In the interest of the party, in his own interest, he should get out of the fray now and he must give the position to somebody who inspires greater confidence. He should not aspire for a second term," he said.


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"Obviously, there is suspicion about his integrity and in the interest of the party and his own interest he must get out of this position. It weakens the party position. In the coming elections we are fighting against corruption and we have to have a man of absolute impeccable integrity," he said.

Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, who has been attacking Gadkari, wrote a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, seeking an investigation into the dealings of Gadkari's company.

"Gadkari has also said that he is open to a free and fair investigation. Being the national president of BJP, it is in the fitness of things that his case is properly investigated and he gets a fair opportunity to prove his innocence and clear his name," Digvijay Singh wrote in his letter.



Senior BJP leaders have voiced support for an increasingly beleaguered BJP president Nitin Gadkari, who faces a barrage of allegations on his business dealings. First, party patriarch LK Advani spoke in his defence today, albeit in a nuanced and cautious statement, and then Sushma Swaraj said the party stood "firmly behind him."

The BJP leaders have lauded Mr Gadkari's offer to be investigated on allegations like giving quid pro quo favours to business houses and accusations that he used shell companies to fund his business. Sushma Swaraj spoke for the party when she said, "Mr Gadkari has categorically stated that there is no wrongdoing and has offered himself for a probe. It is unjust and unfair to accept these allegations as true without a probe. We, the members of BJP, trust our President and stand firmly behind him."

Mr Advani alleged that Mr Gadkari was the victim of a conspiracy; a UPA strategy, he said, to "paint the entire political class with the same brush to minimise and escape its unpardonable sins... This is more to neutralise the unprecedented charges against the ruling UPA." Mr Advani pointed out that "the allegations are about standards of business and not misuse of power or corruption," and said nevertheless, the BJP president had "come clean asking for an inquiry by the Department of Company Affairs. It is a fair and proper response. This shows the difference in the BJP's attitude."


Nitin Gadkari, Virbhadra Singh: Two sides of the same coin?
But the BJP's most senior leader, who has spearheaded his party's campaign against what he calls corruption in the ruling UPA, prefaced all that by saying, "I am of the view that the BJP should be different and should not claim immunity on either scale or nature of the allegations."

Parent body, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS, which handpicked Mr Gadkari to head the BJP and reportedly played an important role in him getting a second term much to the discomfiture of several senior leaders, is now reportedly worried that the many allegations against him will dent his party's political image perilously close to the next elections. RSS leader Dr Manmohan Vaidya was circumspect when he said today, "It seems like a media trial. The RSS is not in the picture. Let the BJP respond to it. We have not issued any ultimatum and have not sought any explanation. The fight against corruption will go on. Nothing will affect it."

The BJP's predicament is that it just changed its rules to hand Mr Gadkari an unprecedented second term as BJP president. The party is believed to be split in two - there are those who reportedly believe that Mr Gadkari carrying on as party chief will be increasingly untenable. But others reportedly argue that finding a replacement now will be a messier task and the party should resolutely ride out the storm.

Last week, activist-turned-politician Arvind Kejriwal accused Mr Gadkari of corruption, quid pro quo deals and conflict of interest in his roles as politician and businessman as part of his shame and name expose series. Congress leader Digvijaya Singh has now written to the Prime Minister asking for an investigation by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs into who funds a business set up by Mr Gadkari in 2000. Veerappa Moily, who is in charge of the Coroprate Affairs Ministry, has already indicated that an inquiry is likely.

Last week, a confident Mr Gadkari was in an NDTV studio live to answer allegations against him; he denied quid pro quo or conflict of interest and defended what he called his friendship with contractors and others who had invested in his ventures. He refuted the suggestion that his Purti group used shell investors and said he was ready for any inquiry. Today, at the RSS' Dussehra function in Nagpur, Mr Gadkari, in full sangh uniform of black cap, white shirt and khaki shorts, was less eager to speak. He pushed away a mike and refused to comment.

Mr Singh's letter to the PM cites a recent and exclusive NDTV report, which highlighted that several of the 18 companies that have invested in Mr Gadkari's Purti Power and Sugar are steeped in mystery - their official addresses, for example, don't check out; many of them are headquartered at the same small room in Mumbai, pointing to the strong possibility of shell investors. In some cases, different investors share directors, and Mr Gadkari's driver, Manohar Panse, is shown as a director of a company that allegedly provides Purti with shares worth a little over three crores.

NDTV also reported that a company which was hired for enormous infrastructure projects during Mr Gadkari's term as minister of Maharashtra's Public Works Department went on later to invest in Purti. Mr Gadkari, when he spoke to NDTV last week, denied that the investment by Ideal Road Builders Group was a quid pro quo for the massive contracts it won when he was a Maharashtra minister, or that there was a blatant conflict of interest in accepting investment from the contractor. He described DP Mhaiskar, who owns Ideal Road Builders, as a good friend.

Mr Gadkari stepped down last year as Chairman of Purti.


Gadkari issue: Now, an astrologer is a director in a Purti investor company

More details have emerged on Wednesday on shell companies of BJP president Shri Nitin Gadkari's Purti group. It’s not just drivers and accountants, now an astrologer has emerged as a director in a Purti investor company which itself seems to be a shell company.

The documents show Ashwami Sales and Marketing Ltd, which owns equity in Purti, is non existent. When CNN-IBN inquired after one of its directors, Hanumant Prasad Sharma, it was found that he was in fact an astrologer by profession. When CNN-IBN enquired at the registered address, Sharma's wife revealed that he was in fact in Rajasthan and that she had never heard of a company called Ashwami. Ashwami is the same company that has Gadkari's driver as a director.
“I don't know what company you are talking about. He works from home as an astrologer,” said wife of Hanumant Sharma.








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