BJP hits back at Cong over Piyush Goyal's business interests

Hitting back at the Congress over its allegations against Union minister Piyush Goyal, the BJP today said the party was making "false", "sensational" and "scurrilous" statements to divert attention from the many scams committed by it.

The BJP, in a late night statement, said the Congress was misrepresenting the income earned by Goyal through professional consultancy.

"The Congress continues its past record of making false, sensational and scurrilous statements to divert attention from huge scams of Congress party and its leaders which are in public domain," the statement said.

It said while Goyal was a preeminent chartered accountant and financial advisor in the country before May, 2014, he wound up all professional activities after becoming a Union minister.

"From July, 2014, Goyal resigned from the board of the company and it effectively started functioning as an investment company managing its own investments," the BJP statement said.

The saffron party also said that though as a professional, Goyal was running his businesses through a number of firms, he fully dissociated himself from all these companies during 2014.

It said while Goyal was on the board of Shirdi Industries Ltd from April 25, 2008 to July 1, 2010, he had nothing to do with it or its associated companies since then.

"A cursory scrutiny of their statutory filings also discloses that the statements made by Congress about the alleged loan amount was totally incorrect, false and a malicious attempt to defame Goyal," it stated.

Earlier in the day, Congress leader Pawan Khera demanded the immediate sacking of Goyal, alleging that his family has business interests in companies that are in default. The party also demanded a judicial investigation by a sitting Supreme Court judge to see if there was conflict of interest in the case.