JOIN USThe Congress on Wednesday demanded the sacking of Railway Minister Piyush Goyal for his alleged links with a private firm whose outstanding bank loans were waived after the Modi government came to power.
Congress leaders also demanded an investigation by a sitting Supreme Court judge into Goyal's alleged links with the firm, Shirdi Industries, and wanted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to break their silence on the issue.
Senior Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, M Veerappa Moily and Pawan Khera claimed that Shirdi Industries secured a loan of Rs 258.62 crore from Union Bank of India when Goyal was its 'chairman and whole-time director' between April 25, 2008 and July 1, 2010.
The private firm was declared sick in June 2015, a year after Goyal was inducted into the Modi government.
Goyal later resigned from the company's board and the company was subsequently declared sick due to its inability to repay loans. However, after the Modi dispensation assumed power at the Centre, 65% of the outstanding loan amount of Rs 651.87 crore was waived by a consortium of banks, Azad said.
Loan to Goyal's wife
Moily claimed that Asis Industries, a sister concern of Shirdi Industries, granted an unsecured loan of Rs 1.59 crore in 2015-16 to Intercon Advisors, a company owned by Piyush Goyal's wife Seema Goyal.
Incidentally, Goyal was also director of the company from September 15, 2005 till July 22, 2013.
"Is it not a clear case of conflict of interest and impropriety on the part of Union minister Piyush Goyal? Why did Shirdi Industries through its sister concern Asis Industries extend an unsecured loan to the minister's wife's company? Why did Piyush Goyal not declare this loan in his public filing on PMO website," Azad asked.