Mittal

New Delhi, Oct. 19: The Commonwealth Games probe today took income tax officials to the premises of Sudhanshu Mittal, Delhi’s “tentwallah” titan the BJP has been trying to distance itself from, gifting the Congress a weapon to counter Nitin Gadkari’s attack on the Prime Minister’s Office.

The income tax department is investigating alleged tax evasion in contracts the Games organising committee awarded to a company in which Mittal, a BJP member who has fallen from grace since Gadkari took over as party president, is a director.

Run by Mittal’s nephew Vinay, the company, Deepali Designs, had bagged Games contracts worth Rs 200 crore. Sources in the income tax department said Mittal took over as a director of the company in February, shortly before Deepali Designs secured the contracts. Mittal did not respond to The Telegraph’s queries.

Apart from the home and office of Mittal, the premises of three other contractors were raided today. The four companies had won contracts worth Rs 650 crore to supply overlays like toilet rolls, treadmills and marquees for the Games Village.

The tax sleuths also visited real estate firm Ireo in Gurgaon. Officials said Mittal was a stakeholder in the company and they were investigating whether the company laundered funds from Deepali Designs through tax havens.

“Some officials from the income tax department have approached Ireo for certain information and clarifications, which are being duly responded to. Ireo doesn’t have any contract with the Commonwealth Games 2010. Ireo remains committed to fully co-operating with the authorities, like always,” a statement from the real estate firm said.

The three other consortiums have been identified as GL Litmus and Meroform, Comfort Net and Nussli India and ESG Arena and D-Art Furniture. The three individually or jointly bagged Games contracts worth Rs 400 crore.

The raid on Mittal robbed Gadkari’s news conference of its punch today. Although the BJP has not rehabilitated Mittal, the Congress took pleasure in suggesting that “probably he (Gadkari) feels that the investigation might reach up to him also”.

Mittal’s sharp rise under the patronage of Pramod Mahajan during Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s rule was resented by many in the party, who were delighted at his fall after Mahajan’s murder.

Gadkari’s predecessor Rajnath Singh had tried hard to rehabilitate him and appointed him convener of Northeast affairs, much to the chagrin of leaders like Arun Jaitley. Although Jaitley and Mittal went to the same school and college — Delhi’s St Xavier’s and Shri Ram College of Commerce — they have no love lost for each other.

Mittal’s resurrection under Rajnath was brief. He tried hard to ingratiate himself with Gadkari by inviting him as the chief guest at an event in March, hoping the BJP would get the “right message”. Former RSS ideologue M.G. Vaidya was also present. But nobody took him seriously.

Asked if he was worried about the raids, Gadkari said: “We are not concerned with that. Whoever’s involved should be punished. I do not know anything about Mittal.”

But at the end of the hour-long session, the BJP president couldn’t make up his mind what kind of a probe he wanted into the Commonwealth Games irregularities: a government probe the cabinet secretary would head or one by a joint parliamentary committee.

Gadkari asked: “Were you (the PM), your senior colleagues and the group of ministers not directly monitoring the CWG work?”

However, apart from regurgitating media reports, he couldn’t substantiate any allegation he made.

Gadkari had said yesterday that he would lob a bomb at the PMO by showing proof of its role in the Games corruption. Today, a party functionary said: “Mamla ulta pad gaya (the matter boomeranged on us).”