Cong links Rajasthan govt's MoU with Portugal to Lalit Modi case

'Lalit Modi's visit to the Portuguese organisation and the BJP govt's MoU with it barely 2 months later are correlated'

Amid controversies over former IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi, the Congress has linked Rajasthan Government's MoU signed with Portuguese Biomedical Research Organisation in October 2014 with the Modi case, but the government rejected the allegations as "baseless and unwanted".

Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee's Vice-President Dr Raghu Sharma alleged that on October 2, 2014 the BJP government had signed the MoU with a private Portuguese Biomedical Research Organisation, Champaliamud Foundation (CF), to set up a state of the art cancer institute in Jaipur after the visit of Lalit Modi in August 2014.

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"The terms and conditions of this MoU should be made public. Lalit Modi's visit to the Portuguese organisation and the BJP government's MoU with it barely 2 months later are correlated," Sharma told PTI.

Rajasthan Medical and Health Minister R S Rathore said that the MoU with the Portuguese Biomedical Research Organisation was signed after considering an experts committee's report for "targeted cancer therapy and technical assistance".

"Targeted Cancer Therapy meant for early detection of cancer in patients and Portuguese centre has got the latest and advance technology in the world for cancer treatment. The MoU was singed under my department's efforts.

"Rajasthan used to get about 60,000 patients of cancers every year and many of them do not get good diagnosis and treatment. Hence, this agreement was achieved for technical support," Rathore claimed.

"Cancer ke liye MoU karna, koi Gunah nahi hai (For cancer treatment, signing MoU is not a crime anyway). It is all baseless and unwanted," he commented.