Tawde rejects Congress charge, says he has done no wrong

Under Congress attack over the "Tarun Bharat Mumbai scam", Maharashtra Education Minister Vinod Tawde today claimed he has violated no law and said he had mentioned all necessary information in his poll affidavit.
Tawde hit back at Congress, which launched an attack on the BJP leader in Delhi and Mumbai, saying the Opposition party has been making "utterly baseless" allegation based on "wrong" information.
In Delhi, Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Randeep Surjewala said Tawde is a director in Shree Multimedia Vision (SMV), "a for-profit company, which brings out Mumbai Tarun Bharat", but this information was not disclosed in his election affidavit.

In Mumbai, Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil said Tawde possessed three Director Identification Numbers (DINs) in contravention of rules.
Speaking to reporters at his official residence here this evening, Tawde said out of the three DINs quoted by Vikhe -Patil only one belongs to his name.
"Of the other two, one was rejected and the other got lapsed in due course of time," he said.

Vikhe-Patil said it is illegal for anyone to be a Minister and at the same time a director of a private company, and demanded Tawde's dismissal from Cabinet.
"I am in possession of just one DIN. The real status of the DIN is available on the website of the Union Ministry of Corporate Affairs," Tawde said.

He clarified the affidavit he filed during the 2014 Assembly elections had clearly mentioned the same.
Tawde said of the three DINs mentioned by Vikhe-Patil one (01427375) has been cancelled/rejected, while the second (02618023) has lapsed. Only the third one (DIN 01720284) is valid and recorded against his name.
Tawde, who has said he was with Shree Multimedia in a "Honorary" capacity and received no remuneration from it, said there is no law which states that after becoming a Minister, one has to resign from the board of a company.
"The company in which I am a director has no correlation with me being a Cabinet Minister. I didn't did not indulge in any action that would have helped the company earn any profit."

A source in BJP said prior to March 31, 2014 having multiple DINs was not an offence. "The DIN system then was not foolproof and the Registrar of Company Affairs used to issue provisional DIN which later on used to get lapsed.