BPCL terminates Bihar minister Tej Pratap Yadav's petrol pump licence

Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) on Saturday terminated the license of Bihar Health Minister Tej Pratap Yadav's petrol pump after he failed to furnish a satisfactory explanation to the notice issued over the allocation of the property in the state.

The BPCL declined to further comment on the issue.

On May 31, BPCL issued a notice to Tej Pratap seeking an explanation on the petrol pump license.

The oil corporation sought Pratap's explanation on how he acquired the licence and asked him to reply within 15 days.

Speaking to reporters, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and Tej Pratap's brother Tejaswi Yadav had said, "There has been degradation in results and we will provide details into the matter soon. Why are such things dealt only one sided, we too have a word for it and will be providing facts soon. We will talk on proper forum and then the truth will be revealed."

The notice signed by BPCL Territory Manager (Retail), Patna, Manish Kumar followed a complaint that Yadav had acquired the petrol pump at Patna's busy Anisabad bypass road on the basis of wrong information furnished by him.

The notice is reportedly connected to senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sushil Modi's allegations that the petrol pump had been fraudulently allotted to Tej Pratap during the UPA-II regime.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had alleged that Tej Pratap did not have the stipulated 43 decimal of land for setting up the petrol pump at the time of applying for it.

He added that it was in the year 2012, when beer-manufacturing baron Amit Katyal, managing director of the firm A K Infosystem leased out around 136 decimal of land to Lalu's younger son Tejaswi Yadav for setting up a petrol pump.