Corruption Watch

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[url="http://www.dailypioneer.com/306196/BJP-to-sue-Radia%E2%80%99s-ex-TV-channel-for-slander.html"]BJP to sue Radia’s ex, TV channel for slander[/url]

The Opposition BJP on Friday threatened legal action against a former aide of Nira Radia, whose claims about “close links” between the corporate lobbyist and BJP leaders were prominently carried by an English news channel. The party would also start legal action against the TV channel for broadcasting allegations by a person who had “spent two years in jail and has a personal score to settle”.



Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley told newspersons here on Friday evening, “Merely because someone else is making these allegation does not dilute the channel’s responsibility… It treated as gospel truth the allegations against prominent BJP leaders (which were) made by someone who not only spent two years in jail but is close to a senior Congress member and has a personal score to settle.”



Radia’s close aide Rao Dheeraj Singh, who was in jail for two years after she accused him of kidnapping her son, told news channel Headlines Today that the lobbyist got hugely benefited out of her close links with BJP leader Ananth Kumar (then Civil Aviation Minister).



He had also accused Ananth of facilitating a Eurocopter deal with the BJP Governments in Karnataka and Maharashtra in 1998, in which Radia was also involved. In an apparent reference to Nitin Gadkari (now BJP chief), Singh claimed the lobbyist also met a BJP leader in Nagpur to facilitate the deal.



“There was no BJP or NDA Government in the two States during the period mentioned by Singh. And Gadkari was Leader of the Opposition in the legislative council (from where he could not have influenced the State Government’s decision on purchase of helicopters),” Jaitley said, adding that Gadkai did not even know Radia before the news about her phones being tapped broke out.



On Singh’s claims about the BJP Government “allotting a huge piece of land” to Radia’s trust in Vasant Kunj in 2002 and LK Advani attending the foundation stone-laying ceremony, the BJP replied that Advani had never attended the said programme.



“The only function he attended in Vasant Kunj in 2002 was that of the trust run by Pejawar Swami, who has himself clarified that the land was allotted to his trust by the United Front Government,” Jaitley claimed.



He also disputed Singh’s claim that Ananth Kumar used to leak Cabinet papers to Radia who, in turn, would pass these on to her clients. “Which Cabinet papers and relating to which issue? We all are oblivious of it,” Jaitley asked. He also strongly rejected the allegation that Ananth Kumar had any bank account in Zurich.