Mittal: For friend’s sake

New Delhi, June 6: Sudhanshu Mittal, a close associate of the late Pramod Mahajan, has accused the media of “cooking up” conspiracy theories.

In a half-hour conversation with The Telegraph, Mittal, who was waiting at Apollo Hospital when Rahul Mahajan and Bibek Moitra were taken there early on Friday morning, alleged that he had been “defamed”.

“Where is the money? What are you people talking about? Who was Bibek complaining to? I totally resent this line of questioning.”

Mittal, who is now said to be close to BJP president Rajnath Singh, was responding to speculation in political circles about the delay in Rahul and Bibek’s hospitalisation ? a factor that might have contributed to the death of Mahajan’s secretary ? and his alleged role in it.

Apart from Bibek, Mittal was one of the few people who knew where Pramod Mahajan’s money was parked, it is being said. The late BJP leader’s secretary is said to have complained that Mittal was not willing to part with the money.

Mittal insists he does not know anything about Mahajan’s financial transactions. “I was a politician much before Pramod Mahajan became a big leader. I was the president of the Delhi University students’ union. It is true that I had a long association with Pramod but there is no money involved. I was a rich man much before Pramod became so big. I didn’t need his money.”

A number of senior BJP leaders have been suggesting that Bibek was unhappy about Mittal appropriating the Mahajan legacy to build his own political career. Bibek himself was trying to promote Rahul.

But Mittal says he always resented being known as Mahajan’s “backroom boy”. He said he contested the recent Uttar Pradesh Rajya Sabha poll against Mehmood Madani and Rajnath helped him. “He did not help me to get a BJP ticket. I was an Independent candidate against Madani and I got the superfluous votes. What is wrong with that?”

He did not win though.

The RSS is said to be unhappy about Rajnath’s association with him.

Mittal is livid with suggestions that he was, in some way, responsible for what happened at the Mahajan residence in Delhi on Thursday night.

He says he was asleep when Harish Sharma, another secretary of Mahajan, called. “Harish said Bibek and Rahul were not well and he had asked the servants to rush them to Apollo. I followed them.”

It was reported earlier that Mittal had asked the servants to take Rahul and Bibek to Apollo, four times the distance from the house than AIIMS.

“Let me tell you once and for all, I had nothing to do with either Bibek or Rahul. I don’t even know if Bibek was upset with me. I went to the hospital that night out of a sense of duty for Pramod.”