Satya Pal Malik's 'Disclosure': PDP Issues Legal Notice To Former J&K Governor, JKNPP Corners Centre
Malik said that he was informed by the secretaries in both departments that there is a “scandal” involved.
New Delhi: Stirring a controversy, former Jammu and Kashmir governor Satya Pal Malik has claimed that he was told he would get Rs 300-crore bribe if he cleared two files belonging to Ambani and a man affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) during his tenure but he cancelled the deals.
“After going to Kashmir, two files came to me (for clearance), one belonging to Ambani and another to an RSS-affiliated man who was a minister in the previous Mehbooba Mufti-led (PDP-BJP coalition) government and claimed to be very close to the Prime Minister,” he told a gathering at an event in Rajasthan’s Jhunjhunu, PTI reported.
Malik said that he was informed by the secretaries in both departments that there is a “scandal” involved.
“I accordingly cancelled both the deals. The secretaries told me that 'you will get Rs 150 crore each for clearing the files' but I told them that I have come with five kurta-pyjamas and will leave with that only,” he said.
Malik, however, did not elaborate on the two files.
Malik, who currently holds the gubernatorial post in Meghalaya, was apparently referring to a file related to the roll-out of a group health insurance policy for government employees, pensioners and accredited journalists, for which the government had tied up with Reliance General Insurance, part of the Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group.
Alleging that Kashmir is the most corrupt place in the country, Malik said: “In the whole country, four to five per cent commission is sought, but in Kashmir, 15 per cent commission is demanded.”
With a video of Malik’s speech going viral, the Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP) cornered the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government at the Centre and questioned the ruling dispensation’s silence over the former Jammu and Kashmir governor’s “sensational disclosure”.
Stating it is strange that “business tycoons and political syndicates” who had attempted to bribe the governor have been allowed to go scot-free, JKNPP chairman Harsh Dev Singh said: “The fate of the files for which Rs 150 crore each was offered to the then-governor should be made known to the public as Malik was relieved from Jammu and Kashmir shortly thereafter.”
“The startling revelation having been made by none other than the constitutional head of the then state (of Jammu and Kashmir), it is shocking that no action has been even initiated against the corrupt mafia operational in the system,” he added in a statement, PTI reported.
The JKNPP chairman said Malik had revealed that the cost of a power project was sought to be enhanced by 10 per cent and kickbacks accounting to 100 crore were offered for the same.
“He had pointed towards the financial scams of grave nature besides thousands of backdoor appointments having been made in J&K Bank and other departments during BJP-PDP government with hardly any action taken against those involved in the said frauds,” he said.
Continuing his tirade, the JKNPP chairman alleged that corruption had been legalised in Jammu and Kashmir, especially under the rule of the BJP-PDP alliance.
Meanwhile, the PDP had issued a legal notice to the former Jammu and Kashmir governor for levelling defamatory allegations against party chief Mehbooba Mufti.
“False & unsavoury utterances of Satya Pal Malik about me being a beneficiary of Roshni Act is highly mischievous. My legal team is preparing to sue him. He has the option to withdraw his comments failing which I will pursue legal recourse,” Mufti tweeted.
She shared a video in which Malik is purportedly seen claiming that National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah, his son Omar Abdullah and Mufti has got plots of land under the Roshni scheme.
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