Gujarat govt snooping: No financial favours to firm owned by woman`s family, says BJP

BJP on Friday denied reports that the Gujarat government had awarded contracts to a company owned by the brothers of the woman who was being "illegally" snooped upon by state police, allegedly at the behest of Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

New Delhi: BJP on Friday denied reports that the Gujarat government had awarded contracts to a company owned by the brothers of the woman who was being "illegally" snooped upon by state police, allegedly at the behest of Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

"My information is that the Gujarat government has not spent any money on the woman or paid a single rupee to the said company," senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu told reporters.

Congress leader Saktisinh Gohil earlier today alleged at a press conference that a "compromise" was reached between the woman`s family and Modi which had seen the state government allotting a "big project in Gandhinagar running into crores" to a company in which she was a director along with two of her brothers.

Gohil said he had acquired information through RTI on "how the public exchequer was misused to benefit the victim of the snooping" and threatened to reveal further details if Modi denied the charges.

However, refuting the fresh allegations, Naidu said the solar project in question had been handled by the Congress-led dispensation at the Centre and not by the Modi government.

BJP has issued a statement saying that Equilibrium Energy Company, in which the woman and her brothers were directors, has not been paid any money by Gujarat government for the Smart Grid Project at the Secretariat.

The party further claimed that IIM, Ahmedabad, and the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, had given incubation support to the said company, including seed funding aid of Rs 25 lakh.

"The Smart Grid Project was implemented at the Secretariat by Torrent Power Ltd, which is a private distribution company responsible for power distribution in Gandhinagar. It was only a pilot project and was completed by 2012," BJP added.

BJP said that, about six months back, the UPA government`s Solar Energy Centre had given a project of Rs 61 lakh for two- and-a-half years for the Solar Energy Centre premises.

This is an initiative supported by the New and Renewable Energy Ministry, the party added.

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