Govt says it will probe graft charge against Gadkari

With media reports alleging dubious funding for firms run by BJP chief Nitin Gadkari, the Centre on Tuesday said it will probe the issue, a stand BJP attacked as being "selective".

Questions have been raised over Gadkari's business interests after new details surfaced saying shell companies had allegedly parked their funds in Gadkari's Purti group. Reports reveal an infrastructure company called IRB gave Purti a loan of R165 crore, two years after IRB was awarded road contracts by Gadkari when he was the PWD minister.

Purti Power and Sugar in which the BJP president owns shares 18 companies and that hold 80% of equity in Purti industries are seemingly shell companies. These companies do not exist at their registered addresses.

Corporate affairs minister M Veerappa Moily said after the information on alleged funding of companies with which Gadkari is associated has come to public domain, the Registrars of Companies will "definitely inquire into it".

Moily said, "We have not ordered anything. It is all coming in the papers. 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."

Gadkari has denied the allegations and offered himself and his companies to any probe. Activist-turned-politician Arvind Kejriwal said the new charges against Gadkari show that both national parties were hand in glove and there was also a conspiracy of silence.

Kejriwal and aide Prashant Bhushan also dismissed Moily's statement to inquire into Gadkari's records. "He had probed into Vadra's accounts too and said nothing was amiss. Now, he would say the same thing about Gadkari too," Bhushan said.

BJP said it endorses the stand of Gadkari that he was open to any investigation by any competent authority and accused the Moily of taking a partisan position on issues relating to corruption.

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