File Photo: Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan
The Congress has demanded the resignation of Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan after NDTV reported that a 2013 income tax report shows his travel arrangements were paid for by a mining baron arrested in the Vyapam jobs scandal in Madhya Pradesh.
"Dharmendra Pradhan should step down, and if he doesn't, the Prime Minster should ask him to resign immediately," said the Congress' Randeep Singh Surjewala today, also reiterating his party's demand that the BJP's Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan must resign.
That, Mr Surjewala said, was the "only way for a fair, independent and impartial probe in a scam in which 49 people who have lost their lives."
NDTV reported exclusively today that Sudhir Sharma - a billionaire who also runs colleges in Madhya Pradesh and is charged with being a prime player in the Vyapam scam - paid for the air tickets and other undefined expenses of top leaders of the BJP and its ideological parent, the RSS, among them Mr Pradhan, according to the 2013 document.
Mr Pradhan, who was not a union minister then, said, "This maybe a one sided argument. My tickets were always booked by the party office." He had earlier told NDTV, "I have no link to Sudhir Sharma."
The income tax report was based on diaries recovered in raids on Sudhir Sharma and names several politicians, including a Congress state legislator Veer Singh Bhuria.
Mr Surjewala said the report from the 2011 raid at Sudhir Sharma's premises allegedly shows that he "used money generated through the Vyapam scam."
The Congress leader accused Chief Minister Chouhan of lying to the Madhya Pradesh Vidhan Sabha and the people of the state in the Vyapam case.
"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.