Charges against me are a conspiracy, says Gadkari

Pushed into a corner, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday termed the assault of allegations, “ a conspiracy to malign me.”

Addressing a public rally here after arriving from Nagpur, Gadkari said that he was “ready for a probe. I kept on saying that I am ready for probe but the allegations kept on flying...and the Congress refused to talk about the probe.”

The entire speech was laced with barbs at Congress and India Against Corruption (IAC) activists, with Gadkari stating “attempts are being made to spread canard against me...all of them want to destroy my reputation. But the farmers in Vidarbha know me well and they do not believe in the slanders.”

Refuting the charges hinting that he has a tacit understanding with Union Minister Sharad Pawar and BJP parliamentarian Ajay Sancheti whose name has cropped up in the Maharashtra irrigation scam, Gadkari said: “Everybody knows I have been fighting for farmers’ rights. How can I be involved in any irrigation scam when my sugar factory uses just a mere 1 per cent of water from the dam? It is ridiculous, that’s all I can say to the allegations hurled at me by Kejriwal.”

Tarnished image

Gadkari came down heavily on the media stating that it was deliberately trying to tarnish his image. Citing the example of the media raking up the issue of the discovery of a girl child’s body in his car parked in front of his house in Nagpur, Gadkari pointed out: “ The media for some strange reason refuses to mention that I have been cleared by police after a thorough probe in the case.”

The BJP leader, amid applause from party supporters, reiterated that all allegations made by the media, the IAC and the Congress, “ were false. I have been time and again saying please order a probe into Purti Group, but it is deliberately downplayed...and instead, both media as well as Congress have been deliberately projecting me as if I am trying to hide something.”

Early this month, some IAC members had alleged that Gadkari had usurped land in Vidarbha by manipulating rules and regulations pertaining to land acquisition. Thereafter, the media went to town alleging that Purti Group of which Gadkari was chairman, pole-vaulted as a big business house in the Vidarbha region after he took over the portfolio of public works department. The allegations also hinted that money was routed to Purti Group through fictitious companies and most companies named investors purportedly had fictitious addresses.

The Income Tax department has since Tuesday begun its probe into the allegations levelled against Gadkari in the media.