Sudhanshu Mittal calls raids a ‘witch-hunt'

October 21, 2010 12:00 am | Updated October 26, 2016 03:51 pm IST - NEW DELHI:

Bharatiya Janata Party man Sudhanshu Mittal, whose business and other premises were searched on Tuesday in connection with alleged Commonwealth Games-related irregularities, termed the act a ‘witch-hunt.'

He told journalists on Wednesday that his company secured contracts worth just Rs. 29 lakh when the alleged scam ran into crores of rupees.

“The witch-hunting and giving a political direction to the investigations have trivialised the issue. I demand justice when I have been presented by these agencies to the media as the prime suspect in the mega scandal. I am sad and my reputation has been hurt by all this,” he said.

His company Delhi Tents and Decorators supplied Rs.13 lakh worth of furniture to various CWG venues, he said. As for the two other companies mentioned – Deepali Designs and Ireo – he said, he did not own even a rupee worth of shares in these businesses. He was a non-executive director in Deepali Designs between February and July this year when he resigned. In fact, Deepali Designs was his “competitor” in business for 25 years. It had bagged contracts worth Rs. 230 crore for the CWG-related projects.

A close relative of his headed the Ireo, but he had no business relationship with the firm, he added.

Two lines of his family split up to start their own separate businesses, one was his and the other was Deepali Designs, he said.

Efforts have been made to divert attention from the real culprits, he said, adding that he supported a full and fair investigation into the entire scandal that had cost taxpayers crores of rupees. By training the spotlight on him, the agencies were putting a question mark on their own credibility.

To a question, he said, he would cooperate with any agency that wanted to look at the accounts of contracts awarded to his firm.

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