₹915CR FIGURE ARBITRARY, SAYS MAJITHIA FAMILY’S FIRM

CHANDIGARH:A day after Congress leader Sukhjinder Singh ‘Lalli’ Majithia accused former minister Bikram Singh Majithia of “complicity in ₹915-crore scam” in allocation of power tenders of sugar mills, the Shiromani Akali Dal leader’s family-owned firm, Saraya Industries Limited, on Sunday dubbed the allegation as “baseless”.

“The allegations seem to have been made due to misinformation and with intent to target Bikram Singh Majithia through us,” noted the statement, attributed to firm director Pardeep Ahuja. “We have not caused any losses to the cooperative sugar mills... Also we are in no way associated with the company A2Z (which got tender for four projects), as alleged.”

The firm said it was the highest bidder in four of the nine projects, for which Punjab Sugarfed had invited tenders in 2008. The project entailed setting up of ₹85-crore cogeneration plants on build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) basis at nine cooperative sugar mills.

“... at the end of the BOOT period, (the firm had to) hand it over to the cooperative mill. In 2011, cooperative mills initiated arbitration against Saraya and the arbitrator dealt with the issue and award was passed based on the merits of the case,” stated the firm director. “The figure of ₹915 crore has no credibility and is arbitrary.” HTC