Patna: Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi on Tuesday said former union minister Prem Chand Chandra of RJD had suppressed his links with the IST Steel Company and used influence to get coal block alloted for it.
"Gupta not only suppressed his links with IST Steel, but also used his influence to get a coal block allotted to it which should be probed by CBI," he told reporters on the sidelines of Janata Durbar here.
Modi claimed that he has documents to prove the charge, even though Gupta had time and again denied his association with the steel company.
Gupta, he said, had hid his identity and fudged documents in the registration of his company Gupta International Investment Company Ltd (GIICL) in Hong Kong.
The RJD leader had given his Hong Kong identity card even though his wife Sarla and son Mayur were mentioned as Indian nationals in documents submitted to the authorities in that country.
GIICL had bought 50 per cent share of IST Steel through CECIL company an offshore company, Modi claimed and slammed Gupta for dissociating himself with the steel company that bagged a coal block in Maharashtra three years ago.
He said Gupta was a close aide of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, who was using him as an 'ATM' all these years.
"If Gupta has not been the ATM of the RJD supremo, then what interest could Prasad have in sending him to Rajya Sabha for two successive terms and getting him picked in the council of ministers in the UPA-I even though he had no connection with Bihar."
Modi asked Prasad to suspend Gupta and explain whether he or the party had benefitted in any way in the allotment of a coal block to Gupta's company.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, October 09, 2012, 16:38