Congress leader Kapil Sibal refuted allegations by BJP MP Smriti Irani accusing the Congress leader of striking a land deal with a man accused of money laundering in South Africa.
Sibal asserted, “It is sad that in this country, economics and maths exam papers are leaked which never happened in the past. I have also been the HRD minister. If you talk about Election Commission, election dates are leaked. If you look at Aadhaar, data is leaked. But when they have to protect their own degrees, the information never leaks. So the government knows how to protect information, what they don't want to be leaked is not leaked.”
Irani had alleged that Sibal and his wife got the acquisition of a piece of land, worth Rs 89 crore, by merely paying Rs 1 lakh. She asserted that the deal was facilitated by Piyoosh Goyal, who, is not only Sibal's friend, but also “enjoys business relations” with the him as well.
The BJP leader also spoke about a piece by a South Africa-based journalist who reported of the links between Sibal, Goyal and a South Africa-based Gupta family, who was at the focus of widespread scrutiny because of their close ties to Jacob Zuma, during his presidency.
Irani cited a report in which she pointed that Goyal was an accused in a SBI corruption case related to the disbursal of a loan of over Rs 400 crore, which was being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
She stated, “People might say that Mr Sibal has a right to buy and engage with the so-called alleged money launderer, the question I pose is, is it politically acceptable to Sri Rahul Gandhi? Is it so natural for the Congress leadership today to embrace the money launderer, to shake hand with those that they had investigated for bribery?”
Sibal, however, denied the allegations and stated that he had bought the land with his own money which was reported in his and his company's income tax filings. He said, “Yes, I bought the company, does anyone mind? I paid and did so from my earnings, tax for which was paid by me, but no one saw it.”
