Responding to the defamation cases filed by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, opposition BJP leader PK Dhumal on Sunday said, "I am fully confident that the truth will prevail... and truth will be our defence."
"I have full faith in the judiciary and the highest regard for it," Dhumal said, adding that "only those go to jail who are involved in corruption, and not those who highlight and expose them."
In a statement issued on Sunday, Dhumal said the Chief Minister had avoided replying to the charges against him made by BJP leaders in the past three months.
The allegations range from his banking transactions and issues relating to his income tax returns, to raising loan from Vakkamullah Chandershekhar and the alleged discrepancies in election affidavits filed by him in 2012.
Dhumal said he himself had been raising these issues and had even written a letter to the Chief Minister on January 6, 2014 on 10 points with a copy to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, but without any result.
Clearing his stand on the Sai Kothi power project, Dhumal said there was no doubt the project was initially allotted in 2002 during his first tenure as Chief Minister, but the process for its cancellation for providing wrong information was also initiated by his government in the same year.
Based on this, the project was cancelled by the Congress government. In November 2003 and subsequently on two other occasions, the Congress government reiterated its earlier decision and finally the project was cancelled.
The company filed a writ petition in the high court which dismissed it in 2005 and upheld the government decision. Then the company moved the Supreme Court which rather than deciding the case on merit directed the state government to reconsider its decision.
But the Congress government rather than sticking to its earlier decision allotted the project to Venture Energies and Infrastructure Ltd on April 28, 2007, Dhumal said.
He said it was thus clear that the project was actually allotted in 2007, and not in 2002 as is being made out by Singh, and further clarified that the BJP government gave extension to this project under a transparent policy, and not by raising personal loans.
"The CM should clarify how could the person who could not pay Rs 58.19 lakh as dues of the government, advanced loans worth crores of rupees to him," Dhumal said.
Comments
0 comment