NEW DELHI/PANAJI
The Congress on Saturday demanded Union Minister Smriti Irani's sacking, alleging her daughter was running an illegal bar in Goa, but the BJP leader claimed the ‘malicious’ charge was made at the Gandhi family's behest due to her vocal stand in the National Herald case and vowed to fight back.
Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera, its general secretary Jairam Ramesh and the party's Goa chief Amit Patkar made the allegations at press conferences in Delhi and Panaji, targeting Irani and her family.
TMC also demanded a thorough probe with its spokesperson Trajano D'Mello saying that on the social, print and national media there was a huge hue and cry over the issue.
The Opposition party also shared a copy of the purported show cause notice given to the bar and alleged that the excise official who gave the notice is reportedly being transferred after pressure from authorities.
But, in a statement, Kirat Nagra, the lawyer of Irani's daughter, said the allegations are baseless and asserted his client is neither an owner nor operating the restaurant called Silly Souls Goa and has also not received any show cause notice from any authority as alleged by them.
Patkar demanded that Chief Minister Pramod Sawant takes suo moto cognisance of the fraud and to set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the matter.
He said there are several frauds committed in obtaining the license.
Relying on RTI documents, Patkar pointed that an Aadhar card is prepared in a person's name on December 30, 2020, who then goes on to apply for the excise licence by filing an affidavit the next day.
“In the affidavit, which is not notarised, the person states that he is a resident of Assagao and apparently the license is sought for a house rather than a restaurant,” Patkar pointed out.
“Under the excise rules, if one wants to get license to sell liquor in a restaurant, then there should be a restaurant in the first place. Only after that a liquor license is granted,” he added.
“Even though the excise department accepts the application, a police report clearly states that the person is not a resident of Goa but of Mumbai. Here too, the excise department overlooks the report and grants license to the person, one for foreign liquor and one for IMFL,” Patkar stated.
“Further, if one has to apply for license, a 25-year domicile certificate is needed. But in this case, the license is given by bypassing this condition too,” he informed.
Patkar further added that the person died on May 17, 2021 but on June 22, this year an application was made for the renewal of the license which is subsequently renewed on June 29. “How come a dead person applies for license renewal? Did a ghost do it?” he posed.
After coming to know of the fraud, the Commissioner of Excise issued a show cause notice on July 21 and a personal hearing is fixed on July 29 at 11 am.
“But we have come to know that the Commissioner is under pressure from the State government. We want that the government should not interfere in the investigation,” Patkar said.
“We demand that the government set up a SIT to probe the case as there are several violations,” Patkar informed and warned that if the government does not take action, the Congress will be forced to come on the road.
Captain Viriato Fernandes chided that the double engine government in Delhi and Goa is destroying the State and questioned whether the union minister is only interested in the development of her own child.
