Chandigarh: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Badal on Saturday challenged chief minister Bhagwant Mann to prove that Saraya Industries Limited, in which senior party leader Bikram Singh Majithia had an inherited share of 11%, had received even one rupee in foreign funding from 2007 to this day, while rubbishing the allegations made in the disproportionate assets (DA) case registered against Majithia.

Addressing newspersons here, Sukhbir said “the only foreign funding received by Saraya Industries was in March, 2006 (one year before SAD formed government in the state) when it received Rs 35 crore from United States based Clearwater Corporation in exchange for 25% shares in the company. Majithia entered politics only in 2007”. Majithia is brother-in-law of the SAD chief.

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He also asserted that Clearwater Corporation, which had offices in several countries, had invested Rs 50,000 crore globally. “All money invested by this company through the NBFC in Saraya Industries was done after due clearance from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and approval of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB)”.

Sukhbir also made it clear that all transactions of Saraya Industries were scrutinised and accepted by the Income Tax department. “This clearly proves that claims of an investment of Rs 540 crore into Saraya Industries through foreign funding are absurd and malicious and being done with the sole purpose of defaming Majithia”.

Asserting that chief minister Bhagwant Mann had pressurised the state DGP to register a case against Majithia because the latter was constantly exposing him and his corrupt and immoral cabinet colleagues, the SAD president said “the chief minister rang up the DGP on the night of June 24 and threatened to remove him in case he did not register a case against Majithia by the morning.

The SAD president also condemned the manner in which retired officers were being used by the AAP government to defame Majithia. “Former DGP S Chattopadhyay is the same person who earlier registered a DA case against former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and him and even travelled to several countries on government expense. The entire case fell flat due to lack of any evidence”.

He also made it clear that the party had conclusive proof of the corrupt acts of Bhagwant Mann and his wife Dr Gurpreet Kaur as well as Patiala SSP Varun Sharma who was handling all the illegal transactions for them and would hold them accountable for the same once the SAD formed a government in the state.