Gadkari denies taking favours from Essar group

Essar files police complaint for hacking against former employees

The Ruia-owned Essar group filed a complaint with the Delhi Police over the leak of confidential and internal emails by former employees that suggest the company extended favours to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari in France and to few government officials in India.

On Friday, The Indian Express reported the Essar group funded part of a two-day trip to France and use of its luxury yacht there for the former BJP president and his family in July 2013.

Addressing a news conference here on Friday, Gadkari said he visited Nice in France on his own expenses and travelled by the yacht at the invitation of the Ruia family — who, he claimed, are personal friends. “I was not minister, member of Parliament or even the BJP president. It was our  personal family trip and all bookings were paid for by us from family account,’’ Gadkari said.

He went on to add that he loves to visit new places and travel to new destinations. “I and my family members were at Norway when Essar promoters (the Ruias) invited me to visit the yacht. There was no other mode of transport but to go in a chopper to the yacht. Therefore, we travelled in helicopter. Had they asked for charges for the chopper ride, I would have paid right there,’’ he said.

Gadkari is the transport minister in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government led by Narendra Modi, who came to power in May last year.

The emails will form the backbone of a proposed case to be filed by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) in the Supreme Court .

On the bourses, the Essar group shares, including Essar Oil and Essar Shipping, did not react to the allegations and traded flat on the BSE on Friday.

The emails show how the group was engaged in sourcing vital policy-related developments and documents from low- and mid-level officials in various ministries, particularly petroleum, the group’s core business. The report also talked about extending guest house facilities to some journalists in Delhi.

In one instance, Essar executives managed to get a 11-page document from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) with details of an inter-ministerial meeting, the newspaper reported.

The revelations are likely to embarrass the Narendra Modi government, which came to power on the slogan of a clean government. An Essar official said it had received anonymous phone calls over the past few weeks from persons who had access to the emails and tried to extort money from the company by threatening to publish the report. “We have filed an appropriate complaint with the authorities concerned  on the theft of data,” a Essar statement said.

The email leaks after a corporate espionage racket that has rocked the government, in which an Essar group official has been arrested by the Delhi Police, along with officials of Reliance, Cairn and Jubilant Energy.