Rajya Sabha MP Prabhat Jha on Tuesday urged Vice President of India, Mohammad Hamid Ansari, to take stern action against Income Tax (IT) officials who tried to defame him.
A letter sent to Ansari, also chairman of the Rajay Sabha, the BJP leader informed that on July 28, a national daily in its New Delhi edition published a story with reference to IT officials alleging that his air travel expenses were borne by a mining baron of Madhya Pradesh.
“The news was without any facts and base and I out rightly reject it. It was totally false allegation,” said Jha.
Jha further said that as a parliamentarian he got 38 free air travels and that his 40-44 free air travels were still pending. In these circumstances if the IT officials got some information during their investigations of someone than without verifying it how could it leak it to the media, he asked. “This is also the violation of the IT Act 138 and I repeat that I do not have anything to do with the said air travels,” he added.
He said that the IT department did not have any right to defame a reputed Indian citizen; we live a social life that was why it became necessary for me to bring this thing in your notice. I had also submitted the facts and information related with this to Finance Minister P Chidambaram, he added.
Jha said that he had enquired about the biased news against him and came to know that it was the handy work of two IT officials namely Abhishek Tiwari and Salil Khare, who were acting on the directives of the Congress leaders and were continuously engaged to defame BJP and RSS personals. “Hence I demand strong action from your side against these erring IT officials and the issue be brought up in privilege committee of the Parliament, you are the Chairman of our House and it is our right to get your patronage,” he added.