Prashant Bhushan's charges false, says Ravi Shankar Prasad
Prasad also said that in his long political career his integrity has never been questioned.
New Delhi: Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday strongly refuted allegations that he had taken money from Sahara Group. On Thursday, civil right activist and eminent lawyer, Mr Prashant Bhushan had tweeted a “handwritten” page allegedly seized by income-tax sleuths during raids at Sahara Group offices regarding payoffs in 2010. Mr Bhushan, in his tweet, had alleged, “A handwritten pg seized by I-T in Sahara raid with payoffs of 2010. Last entry is '1.25cr to R.S. Prasad. BJP should get a better person to defend Modi.”
Mr Prasad — who had come out in defence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s alleged “personal corruption”, saying that “he(Modi) is as sacred as Ganga,” — on Friday described the charges against him as “motivated,” “baselss” and false.”
Mr Prasad said; “My entire record of fighting against corruption is known. In the fodder and bitumen scams, I played a major role in exposing the corrupt, which led to politicians, bureaucrats going to jail.”
Talking about the alleged I-T note, he pointed out that “even the Supreme Court had refused to take cognizance of this plain handwritten document, which is of zero relevance.” He claimed that the “alleged reference of payment made to me is false and fabricated.” Mr Prasad said that “it is indeed regrettable that finding no response reportedly by the Supreme Court, Prashant Bhushan has now sought to go public with his tweets, which are defamatory in character.”
Pointing fingers at the social activist, Mr Prasad said, “many disturbing questions have been raised about Bhushan families regarding allocations of cheaper lands at Noida and also in Himachal Pradesh.”
Mr Prasad also said that in his long political career his “integrity” has never been questioned.