VIJAYAWADA: AP Planning Board Vice-Chairman C Kutumba Rao on Wednesday alleged a huge scam in the deal struck between Essar Oil and Russian government’s oil company Rosneft. He said he would soon come up with evidence.
Stating that apart from India, Russia and China were also involved in the scam, Kutumba Rao said that all the details along with evidence would be submitted to the Central Vigilance Commission and Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in a phased manner and the PMO would have to give a reply.
Kutumba Rao alleged that by allowing the deal between Essar Oil and Rosneft, the Centre gave the Russian oil company a monopoly to sell oil in India.
Though the balance sheet of Essar Oil had put the value of the firm at 3,500 crores, it was taken over by the Russian oil company for `73,000 crores and the agreement to this effect was exchanged in the presence of Prime Minister Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Gujarat in 2016.
He said that the Russian Finance Minister was behind bars three months ago in connection with the deal. He said that a merchant of China was also arrested for purchasing shares of Rosneft from a Qatar-based company. A week after this arrest, Modi made an unscheduled visit to China.