Bijendra Singh, who was recently exonerated of all the corruption charges in the Nafed tie-up scam attribute his acquittal to the departure of the former union agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar from the government. “Had he been there, I would not have been given a clean chit”, said Mr Singh to Indian Cooperative.
“I fell out of favour of the Minister as he wanted his own man to head Nafed. But election is election and the elected Directors chose me as their Chairman and there was nothing I could have done”, Singh said.
It is said that Mr Pawar wanted Holkar, the Nashik based cooperator to become the Chairman. But Bijender Singh would not listen to it. The animosity between the Nafed Chairman and the Union Minister never abetted after that.
Bijender accuses Pawar of asking Ministry’s officials to entrap him in the scam as an afterthought. I was just a local director with no voting right. How could have I influenced the decision of the business committee which ultimately led to current pass for the agri-cooperative, he asked.
“Even the then Central Registrar knew too well that I am innocent. He even shared the same with me informally but he had to keep the matter lingering to please his “boss”, Singh divulged.
Whatever be the truth but the timing of judgment exonerating Bijender of the charges soon after the election result, does point to a grain of truth in what he says, say some of the cooperators connected with the issue since beginning.
