Former Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Raghubar Das has questioned the intent of naming him in Jamshedpur East MLA Saryu Roy’s book ‘Lamhon Ki Khata’ which was formally unveiled here on Monday. Through the book Roy has resurrected the ghost of an old controversy involving Meinhardt; a Singapore-based company, which was appointed as consultant by the State urban development department when Raghubar Das was heading the department.
Das has questioned when the Court, government gave clean chit to him, is only one person truthful? “Sarayu Roy's book has come on Meinhardt;, in which my name is mentioned. In such a situation, the people of Jharkhand have the right to know the truth. This is a matter which MLA Saryu Rai wants to raise from time to time in the discussion. He has raised this issue many times before. The public would like to know what Roy Ji wants to tell by raising the issue of Manhattan again and again. What is he angry about? Is he angry at canceling the contract given to ORG?” questioned Das.
“The case on which this book is on is very old. It has also been investigated. The Secretary investigated, the Chief Secretary investigated, the matter went to the Cabinet. The matter went to the Government of India. It got approval from there. Payment was made after court order. Should it be assumed that whatever decision was taken from the government to the court order, it was all wrong and only Saryu Roy Ji is right! If he felt that the court order was not correct then why did he not go to appeal further? Now he is writing a book instead of going to the court,” said Das.
Roy has been alleging the company was appointed by Das by violating set norms with intent to commit corruption and the state suffered financial loss out of this exercise.
“I have been raising the issue of Meinhardt and even PILs were filed before Jharkhand High Court. Some powerful leaders in the BJP impressed the Central leadership that I have been raising this issue just because I am opposed to Raghubar Das. This is far from reality because my only concern is corruption. On that basis I was denied the party ticket in the 2019 elections. I had told voters and supporters of my constituency that Meinhardt was one of the reasons behind denial of ticket and I will write a book on this so that the truth comes out. I have sent the soft copy of the book to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home minister Amit Shah and BJP national president JP Nadda so that they also know the fact,” Roy said.
In the book running over 182 pages Roy claimed that he has only mentioned facts backed by documents.