A team of 12 officials from Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday conducted search operation at former Cabinet Minister for Textile Shankersinh Vaghela in Congress-led UPA Government in connection with alleged `1,700 crore National Textile Corporation (NTC) land deal scam in Mumbai.
According to sources, the search operation was initiated from early morning at Vaghela’s palatial residence ‘Vasant Vagado’ situated in Vasania village on the outskirts of Gandinagar. The search operation continued for nearly nine hours till 4 pm. Vaghela also signed a document after the completion of the CBI search operation.
Simultaneously, an FIR was also registered against the former Gujarat Chief Minister and current leader of Opposition in the State Assembly, ex-chairman & Managing Director of NTC Ramchandran Pillai and five others for dubious sale of NTC land in Mumbai, which allegedly caused several hundred crores loss to the Exchequer.
Apart from Vaghela’s residence in Gandhinagar, search operations were conducted at eight locations in three other cities, including New Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. The CBI officials have reportedly have seized documents related to the scam from these locations.
Meanwhile, after the search operation, Vaghela hurriedly convened a Press conference and claimed that it was nothing but to divert the attention of public from the ongoing controversy of former IPl chief lalit Modi, in which two top BJP leaders, including Union Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje’s names are also involved.
“CBI official were cooperated by me and my family members. They searched for long hours. All they found was a letterhead and visiting card of the time when I was union Minister. I have developed a habit of keeping my old visiting cards. Even I have kept visiting cards printed in 1977. The officials were allowed to open my cupboards. They checked two houses of my sons,” he said.
According to him NTC scam was deliberately flashed from Delhi keeping political vendetta as it is seven year old matter but they (NDA government) raised the issue when the central government is in trouble over the issue of lalit Modi.
“People were carrying away bricks of dilapidated compound walls of closed NTC mills. We were paying security charges. The decision was taken to lessen the financial burden on the PSU. The land deal was transparent and we completed all the formalities,” he said, claiming that as per his information at one point of time the NDA government was to sell all NTC lands in Mumbai for `200 crore. He said NTC had `1,800 crore debt but because of the efforts of the previous Government it earned `2,000 crore through NTC deals. He said right from Gandhinagar to Delhi all have burned fingers in corruption.