New Delhi:
President Pratibha Patil cancelled her visit to a dairy in Maharashtra after the BJP protested that is is linked to Vinod Goenka, a businessman who was imprisoned for the telecom scam, and is now out on bail.
This evening, Rashtrapati Bhawan announced that the President would on account of a "paucity of time" not be able to stop at the Dynamix Dairy in Baramati on her visit to the area tomorrow. Her stop there had been allocated nine minutes by her team.
However, Mr Goenka's firm, DB Realty, then issued a statement clarifying that Vinod Goenka holds no state in the Dynamix Schreiber Dairy.
Sources say the President had been invited to Baramati by Union minister Sharad Pawar, who has been loyally supported by voters in this region of Maharashtra.
The Dynamix Dairy is a joint venture between the Goenka family, known for its vast business interests in and around Baramati, and American food giant Schreiber.
Mr Goenka co-owns DB Realty with Shahid Balwa, who was also jailed for the telecom scam. The CBI alleges that Swan Telecom, another Balwa-Goenka enterprise, paid a kickback of Rs 214 crore to former minister A Raja in return for a mobile network license in 2008.
Mr Balwa and Mr Goenka were granted bail a few months ago. Mr Raja was allowed to leave jail last month. They are among a group of 14 people being tried for the telecom scam in a Delhi court.