'May I ask if Sharad Pawar will say the chief justice of the high court as well as the judge who extended remand are also taking instructions from Somaiya?'
'If political corruption is brought down, automatically lower level corruption will reduce.'
'This scam was exposed when Kirit Somaiya's party was not in power.'
The political war between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Nationalist Congress Party in Maharashtra is getting bitter by the day.
After former NCP MP Sameer Bhujbal's arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in the Maharashtra Sadan scam, party chief Sharad Pawar stated that the BJP-led government in the state is playing vindictive politics.
Pawar further alleged that the ED was acting on a BJP MP's behalf -- political circles believe he is pointing to Kirit Somaiya.
Sameer is the nephew of the powerful NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal, also a co-accused in the scam.
Kirit Somaiya, below, left, was the first person to accuse Bhujbal and his family of taking kickbacks when the Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) Maharashtra Sadan building was being constructed in New Delhi.
The work on Maharashtra Sadan was carried by the public works department -- Chhagan Bhujbal was then the state's PWD minister.
Somaiya, the BJP MP from Mumbai-North East, spoke to Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com
What is your reaction to Sharad Pawar indicating that the Enforcement Directorate is working on your directions?
You and Sharad Pawar might both have gone through the ED's submissions in the high court as well as the sessions court. The affidavit filed by the Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday (February 2) says so much about the scam.
Despite arguments by (Sameer) Bhujbal's advocate, the court did not accept a single word and extended his remand by a week.
I believe Sharad Pawarji accepts that he can say anything about Kirit Somaiya, but will he accept the court observations?
May I ask if Sharad Pawar will say the chief justice of the high court as well as the judge who extended the remand are also taking instructions from Somaiya?
The issue is what Bhujbal has done. Pawar and (Chhagan) Bhujbal want to divert the issue.
Pawar said Chhagan Bhujbal did not do anything wrong because all decisions were taken by the earlier state cabinet. So why target Bhujbal alone?
The same thing they have been arguing for the last four years in the high court. The same thing they said in court on Tuesday and are saying the same thing before the SIT (Special Investigation Team) also.
The major issue is corruption, corrupt practices, money laundering, parking funds in foreign countries and abusing power for individual and family purposes.
There could be a policy, but in execution if somebody is indulging in malpractices then that person is being charged. That is what is happening in the Bhujbal issue.
On your Web site you say, nation first, party second, self last. Now you are tweeting that you want Bhujbal, scams like Adarsh, Maharashtra Sadan and irrigation allegedly involving former ministers Sunil Tatkare, Ajit Pawar and Ashok Chavan taken to he logical end.
What is the reason that you are going after all the powerful guys in the Congress and NCP?
Nation first, that is the response to this question. Nation first means the leader who has been given responsibility by the people has to use that for the benefit of society.
Here the ministers have used and abused their authority for their benefit. These are major scams.
We are not after an individual, we are after the scams.
If political corruption is brought down, automatically lower level corruption will reduce.
We are not talking about Ashok Chavan. We are talking about the Adarsh scam. We are not talking about Tatkare or Ajit Pawar, but the Rs 70,000 crore (Rs 700 billion) irrigation scam. This has hurt the development of the state.
Pawar further said in 1995 there was a Shiv Sena-BJP government in Maharashtra, but they were not vindictive as the Devendra Fadnavis government is.
The cases and the scams that have been exposed in 2011-2012 are acknowledged by the CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General). If the Supreme Court is monitoring the coal scam and the 2G scam, is Pawar going to tell them you are vindictive?
I am talking about the Maharashtra government.
In a similar manner, the Mumbai high court is monitoring the PWD's Maharashtra Sadan scam, and monitoring the irrigation scam. Can we say the courts are vindictive?
This scam was exposed when Kirit Somaiya's party was not in power. I was an ex-MP then.
We exposed the scam. I gathered the documents, compiled and analysed it and put it before the court.
Despite people like me, mediapersons and activists approaching the previous government and investigating agencies dozens of times, they did not do anything and tried to protect the scamsters.
Here the Fadnavis government gave permission for an open inquiry which was rejected by the earlier government. After the inquiry has been concluded, they have filed the chargesheet.
So let us debate if anything is wrong in the FIR or anything is not included in the chargesheet. Whatever documents are available have been placed before the public and in the assembly.
Now the investigating agency is able to conclude it and want to take it to its logical end. I will say Pawar must help the state do that.
You also accused Bhujbal of importing coal from Indonesia with benami money.
When I exposed Bhujbal in that case, he said they had taken coal mines in Indonesia through a Singapore company because they wanted coal in India to be used in their power plant. And he gave an example that they had a power plant in Nashik.
Now I have proved that Bhujbal is lying because he does not have any thermal power plant. The power plant which he referred is a green power plant.
The thermal power plant, which Bhujbal referred to, was in the Nashik municipal corporation area, where such plants cannot be allowed.
The company, which he referred to, was a defunct company. It never generated power in the last seven years. Just for money laundering they have run the power plant. It was corruption money.
Now the ED also has concluded that no coal block has been purchased anywhere in the world and they do not have a coal-based power plant also. They do not have permission to use coal in that power plant.
