‘Minister, RSS leaders gained from Vyapam’

The Congress released an internal report of the IT department that showed that scam accused Sudhir Sharma had paid for air tickets for Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

July 16, 2015 03:33 am | Updated November 17, 2021 01:53 am IST - New Delhi:

Bhopal Congress activists taking out torch rally on the eve of Madhya Pradesh Bandh against Vyapam Scam. Photo by A.M. Faruqui

Bhopal Congress activists taking out torch rally on the eve of Madhya Pradesh Bandh against Vyapam Scam. Photo by A.M. Faruqui

The name of a Minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s team figures in the list of alleged beneficiaries in the Vyapam scam.

The Congress on Wednesday released an internal report of the Income-Tax Department that showed that scam accused Sudhir Sharma had paid for air tickets for Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

The party demanded that Mr. Pradhan be sacked as it released the report from 2013 that shows the Vyapam accused had paid for Mr. Pradhan’s air tickets as well as those of BJP vice-president Prabhat Jha, who was till recently in charge of Madhya Pradesh, Rajya Sabha member Anil Dave and Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh leader Suresh Soni.

The alleged pay-offs and gifts pertain to a time when Mr. Pradhan was not a Minister but a party general secretary.

“The report was prepared based on raids on Sudhir Sharma and Suryavanshi’s [both accused] premises and the documents, hard drives and pen drives seized from there. It has entries of the money paid which shows BJP MPs, RSS officials and BJP’s senior office-bearers are involved. The money used to extend favours to them is the ill-gotten money from the Vyapam scam,” Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said. “Dharmendra Pradhan has no right to continue,” he added.

The BJP dismissed the charges as the “handiwork of the Congress’s dirty tricks department.” Madhya Pradesh in-charge and BJP vice-president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe told The Hindu : “The Congress is perturbed that the Modi government has completed a blemish-free year in office so they have galvanised their dirty tricks department.”

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