On Friday, April 21, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) summoned the former governor of Jammu and Kashmir Satya Pal Malik to appear before it for further examination and answer questions related to the Reliance insurance case in the Union Territory. Malik has been asked to appear before the agency on April 27 and April 28. He will be questioned on the allegation that employees of Jammu and Kashmir were forced to buy insurance schemes from Reliance Insurance, which had led to the cancellation of the group medical insurance proposal.
#BREAKING | Former Governor of Jammu and Kashmir Satyapal Malik summoned by CBI on April 27 and April 28.#CBI #SatyapalMalik #JammuKashmir pic.twitter.com/fEpThPhrmj
— Republic (@republic) April 21, 2023
Responding to the summon, Malik told the media that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has asked for his presence at the agency’s Akbar Road guesthouse in New Delhi for certain clarifications.
“They want certain clarifications for which they want my presence. I am going to Rajasthan so I have given them dates from April 27 to 29 when I am available,” Malik said.
CBI has asked me to come to their Delhi office to give clarification regarding the alleged insurance scam in J&K on 27th or 28th April: Former J&K Governor Satyapal Malik on alleged insurance scam involving Reliance General Insurance
— ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2023
(file photo) pic.twitter.com/t9kLr3Dvrp
In the recent interview with Karan Thapar, Malik mentioned the case. He had alleged that RSS and BJP leader Ram Madhav had met him when he was the governor of Jammu and Kashmir to try and get him to pass the scheme proposed by Reliance Insurance, but he cancelled it.
“I had initially passed this scheme but a lot of people asked me to take it back. The first thing that happened was that government employees were really unhappy with the coming of the scheme. That is because all government employees had to pay Rs 8,500 a year for the scheme. Retired officers had to give more than Rs 20,000,” he said in the interview, where he made several controversial comments.
Satyapal Malik had also alleged that Ram Madhav had tried to bribe him with Rs 300 crore to pass two files related to “Ambani” when he was the J&K governor. While he had made the allegation earlier also, he had said it was a senior RSS leader. In the recent interview, he claimed that it was Ram Madhav.
Ram Madhav has denied the allegations and has sent a defamation notice to Satya Pal Malik. In his legal notice to Malik, Madhav said, “Malik made untrue and defamatory statements to stay relevant in political circle.”
In April last year, the CBI lodged two FIRs over corruption allegations levelled by Malik in the awarding of contracts for a group medical insurance scheme for government employees and civil work worth Rs 2,200 crore related to the Kiru hydroelectric power project in Jammu and Kashmir. In a first information report (FIR), the CBI named Reliance General Insurance along with Trinity Reinsurance Brokers as accused in the alleged scam.
Satya Pal Malik, who was the governor of Jammu and Kashmir between August 23, 2018 and October 30, 2019 had claimed he was offered a Rs 300 crore bribe for clearing two files.
Notably, in 2018, some groups alleged that the central government is ‘forcing’ the state government employees in Jammu and Kashmir to buy group health insurance from Reliance. Some reports stated that the central government is favouring the Reliance company over state-owned LIC for providing group health insurance to employees.
Congress used the news extensively to attack the BJP government. Congress leader Salman Nizami then tweeted that there was no bidding and the ‘Modi government’ chose Reliance over LIC.
The claims that there was no bidding process and Reliance was chosen over LIC were, however. found to be completely false as the Jammu and Kashmir finance department had issued a notice inviting tenders on June 1, 2018, from all general insurance companies for the group medical insurance. So the claims of ‘no bidding process’ and ‘LIC being sidelined’ were totally false because when there was a tender process, naturally the contract would go to the lowest bidder with the best proposal.
Despite being debunked, Rahul Gandhi, continuing with his baseless allegations about the central government favouring industrialist Anil Ambani, had gone on to repeat this particular lie. In a tweet posted in October 2018, he claimed that employees of the Jammu and Kashmir government had been arm-twisted to buy health insurance from Reliance General Insurance Company, which is part of Anil Ambani’s Reliance group. Referring to PM Modi as BFF of Ambani, Rahul did not forget to include his lie about the Rafale deal too in the tweet.
It’s amusing how years keep passing but Rahul Gandhi remains persistent with his baseless allegation of the Modi government favouring big industrialists. The only difference is that recently, Mukesh Ambani has replaced his younger brother Anil Ambani.
