New Delhi, Dec 19: The Aam Aadmi Party alleged impropriety and conflict of interest on the part of Union Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and former UPA minister Manish Tewari in connection with Reliance Industries.
Alleging that Prasad’s association with the corporate group prevented him from issuing a notice to Reliance Jio on the 4G issue, the party demanded the Union Minister’s resignation.
Prasad and Tiwari refuted the allegations and called them baseless. “We have documents that show direct conflict of interest and impropriety in conduct of a current and a former cabinet minister,” senior AAP leader Yogendra Yadav said. The AAP had with them invoices worth Rs 84 lakh raised by Prasad on Fine Tech Corporation Private Limited, a company associated with the Reliance group, between April 2013 to March 2014.
Senior AAP leader Prashant Bhushan alleged that Prasad has been receiving payment from the company “in the form of retainership fee” which “appears to be a token of gratification being offered”.
The party also pointed out that before becoming a union minister, Prasad was a member of the Joint Parliamentary Committee from March 2011 onwards, examining matters relating to allocation and pricing of telecom licences and spectrum.
“Is the current Minister for Telecom (Ravi Shankar Prasad) not sitting over a notice that needs to be issued to Reliance Jio with respect to the 4G case? Why is the Minister for Telecom Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad sitting over this notice for the past three months and not allowing DoT’s Access Service Division to issue notice to Reliance?” the AAP asked in a statement.
According to a statement by Prasad’s office: “The allegation of the AAP is completely false and misleading… Mr Prasad has never given any advice or appeared for the Reliance Industries.”
The statement also said that before becoming a minister, Prasad had terminated all his professional relationships.
In the case of former telecom minister Manish Tewari, the AAP said that he was in a retainership agreement with the RIL even during his tenure as a union minister.
Alleging that Tewari’s retainership contract expired on June 30, 2012, he got the contract extended tell June 30, 2015. Pointing out that Tewari was also a member of JPC which probed the 2G telecom scam, Bhushan said, “Such former ministers speak in Parliament on issues of interest to these companies (Reliance group).”
According to Tewari’s office, he was sworn in as a minister on October 28, 2012 and took charge on the October 29 and on his request his licence to practice was suspended by the Bar Council the next day. “On the November 1, 2012, we wrote to Reliance Industries Ltd. terminating the Legal Relationship with immediate effect and Reliance Industries acknowledged the termination of the Legal Relationship vide letter dated November 3, 2012,” the statement read.
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