Harsha Moily denies any wrongdoings in receiving funds

In the eye of a storm over receiving grants from a corporate giant when his father M Veerappa Moily was the Corporate Affairs Minister, Harsha Moily today said his company received funds from "professional investors" before Moily senior joined the government.

He also said his family trust received only Rs 42 lakh as donations from corporates and not Rs 6 crore as reported.

"It is important to note that MokshaYug Access India Pvt Ltd (MYA) received funding from professional investors in 2008, much before my father joined the government," Harsha Moily, Founder and CEO of MYA, said in a statement.

"MYA's investors did due diligence on MYA through the most part of 2007, and the funding from VCs (venture capitalists) came through in March 2008," he said.

Moily senior was made the Law Minister when UPA-II came to power in 2009 and he was shifted to the Corporate Affairs Ministry in 2011.

On ITC funding the family trust, Kissan Sabha Trust, Harsha said the Trust has not received any funding of Rs 6 crore as was being reported.

"As a practice, budget requirements are drawn to understand the funding requirements to run educational institutions for underprivileged poor and school dropouts. The estimation for a yearly operating expenditure was worked out at Rs 50 lakhs a year.

"A corpus to ensure yearly interest receipt was worked out at Rs 6 crore to yield Rs 50 lakhs at 8 per cent interest per annum. The estimation of creating a corpus is an accounting exercise," he said, adding "the Trust has not received any funding of Rs 6 crore."

"It has been granted Rs 42 lakhs to fund the operating expenditure for the year though the operating expenditure is higher and is met from donations from the public," he added.

On the role of Reliance Industries executive Ananth Ravi, Harsha said during his days at RIL between 1999 and early 2002, he came in contact with Ravi and built a personal relationship with him.

"He (Ravi) played a mentorship role in MYA during the period he wasn't employed at Reliance between December 2011 to July 2012. He excused himself from the advisory board upon rejoining Reliance in August 2012. Accordingly, we removed his name from MYA's website a few months ago," Harsha added.