Billionaire at Heart of Vyapam Scam Funded BJP, RSS Leaders: Tax Report // Vyapam probe threatens to drag in Sangh Parivar elders

NB: the looters are ultra-patriots, their opponents are anti-national elements -DS

NEW DELHI:  A mining baron arrested on charges of being a prime player in the Vyapam or jobs scandal in Madhya Pradesh paid for the air tickets and other undefined expenses of top leaders of the BJP and its ideological parent, the RSS, according to an income tax report from 2013. That report was not pursued by state police investigators who were handling the Vyapam inquiry till this week, when the CBI took over.

"We are not shielding anyone. But let's not go by one odd report... let's wait for the CBI investigation," said the BJP's Shaina NC to NDTV. The document from 2013 said Sudhir Sharma, whose vast business empire includes mines and colleges, had made "huge payments in cash for air tickets, travel bills, etc" for a group of politicians including Suresh Soni of the RSS and Prabhat Jha, then state president of the BJP.

The report was based on diaries recovered in raids on  Sudhir Sharma and said the billionaire made "payments for travel arrangements of important political personalities" like Laxmikant Sharma, former Mining and Education Minister in Madhya Pradesh and Dharmendra Pradhan, now a union minister;  Congress state legislator  Veer Singh Bhuria, the report said, received "regular payments" from Sudhir Sharma. "All those who are guilty should be punished," said Tom Vaddakan of his party.

The Vyapam scam is based on bribes paid for the blatant and wide-spread manipulation of recruitment exams for government jobs and state colleges. After six months of dodging arrest, Sudhir Sharma was jailed in July 2014, a month after former minister Laxmikant Sharma, whom he served as an aide in the early 2000s.

The income tax report accessed by NDTV alleges that Sudhir Sharma regularly received lakhs in cash from two  colleges linked to the Vyapam scam.  That money, tax officials said, "was passed onto a Madhya Pradesh minister's aide on the same day".  The report called for an inquiry into "deep  links" between the entrepreneur and Laxmikant Sharma. Reactions from those whose travel was paid for by Sudhir Sharma, according to Income Tax report:

"What's wrong if the party pays for my ticket?" said Prabhat Jha, former president of BJP in Madhya Pradesh

"The party office booked my ticket.  I have no link to Sudhir Sharma" - Dharmendra Pradhan, the union minister mentioned in the income tax report

"No comment, the CBI investigation is on" - Anil Dave, BJP Rajya Sabha member

No comment from Suresh Soni of RSS.  BJP said he was cleared by the state investigators who handled the Vyapam scam till the CBI took over this week.

Vyapam troubles loom for RSS: probe threatens to drag in Sangh Parivar elders
Vyapam accused Mihir Kumar, a former sewadar (assistant) to the late Sudarshan, in a written statement before the STF admitted having got job with the state weights and measures department in 2012 fraudulently: "After filling the application forms, I gave photocopies of them to the late Sudarshanji, who was the former RSS chief. I was Sudarshanji's sewadar. I requested him to help me clear the test so that I could get a job. Sudarshanji asked Laxmikant Sharma (former state minister now in jail in connection with the scam) to make sure that I cleared the test. Sharma assured Sudarshanji that the work would be done. Sudarshanji told me that I should attempt questions that I could and leave the rest blank. I answered some 50-60 questions correctly and left the others blank as instructed. When the results came out on October 18, 2012, I was seventh on the merit list," Mihir Kumar had told STF. Former MPPEB examination controller Pankaj Trivedi, who is in jail on charges of complicity in the recruitments in the weights and measures department, also reportedly told investigators that Laxmikant, told him that "Mihir is a very important candidate and Soniji's man". In the face of looming trouble, the message emerging from the Parivar huddles is loud and clear: drown the Congress campaign on Vyapam with aggression on the streets..
http://www.firstpost.com/politics/vyapam-troubles-loom-for-rss-as-investigation-threatens-to-drag-in-sangh-parivar-elders-2345142.html

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