Express News Service – BANGALORE

20th March 2013

Even as Petroleum Minister Veerappa Moily is in the eye of the storm over the donations made by the ITC to the Trust run by his family members, the BJP has accused him of encroaching government land in Karkala in Dakshin Kannada.

Speaking to reporters here on Tuesday, BJP state youth wing president Sunil Kumar alleged that the Kissan Maha Sabha Trust run by the Moily family had encroached 20 cents of government land in Karkala town which is adjacent to the auditorium built by the trust.

He also accused the Petroleum Minister of illegally allotting Gomal land to the trust when he was the chief minister during 1995-96.

“The trust boasts of giving free education. But the fact is that they are collecting huge donations,” he said.

Interestingly, in both the cases, the trust has not paid tax, Kumar said while demanding Moily to resign immediately and keep himself away from the politics till he comes clean of all charges.

“If he refuses to do so, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should drop him (Moily) from the Cabinet,” the BJP state youth wing president urged.

BJP spokesperson Ashwathnarayan accused the Moily family of receiving `6 crore unsecured loan from the Reliance group to one of their firms.

Harsha Moily denies any wrongdoing in getting funds

New Delhi, Mar 19 (PTI) In the eye of a storm over receiving grants from a corporate giant when his father M Veerappa Moily was the Corporate Affairs Minister, Harsha Moily today said his company received funds from “professional investors” before Moily senior joined the government.

He also said his family trust received only Rs 42 lakh as donations from corporates and not Rs 6 crore as reported.

In the eye of a storm over receiving grants from a corporate giant when his father M Veerappa Moily was the Corporate Affairs Minister, Harsha Moily today said his company received funds from “professional investors” before Moily senior joined the government.

He also said his family trust received only Rs 42 lakh as donations from corporates and not Rs 6 crore as reported.

“It is important to note that MokshaYug Access India Pvt Ltd (MYA) received funding from professional investors in 2008, much before my father joined the government,” Harsha Moily, Founder and CEO of MYA, said in a statement.

“MYA’s investors did due diligence on MYA through the most part of 2007, and the funding from VCs (venture capitalists) came through in March 2008,” he said.

Moily senior was made the Law Minister when UPA-II came to power in 2009 and he was shifted to the Corporate Affairs Ministry in 2011.

On ITC funding the family trust, Kissan Sabha Trust, Harsha said the Trust has not received any funding of Rs 6 crore as was being reported.

“As a practice, budget requirements are drawn to understand the funding requirements to run educational institutions for underprivileged poor and school dropouts. The estimation for a yearly operating expenditure was worked out at Rs 50 lakhs a year.

“A corpus to ensure yearly interest receipt was worked out at Rs 6 crore to yield Rs 50 lakhs at 8 per cent interest per annum. The estimation of creating a corpus is an accounting exercise,” he said, adding “the Trust has not received any funding of Rs 6 crore.”

“It has been granted Rs 42 lakhs to fund the operating expenditure for the year though the operating expenditure is higher and is met from donations from the public,” he added.
On the role of Reliance Industries executive Ananth Ravi, Harsha said during his days at RIL between 1999 and early 2002, he came in contact with Ravi and built a personal relationship with him.

“He (Ravi) played a mentorship role in MYA during the period he wasn’t employed at Reliance between December 2011 to July 2012. He excused himself from the advisory board upon rejoining Reliance in August 2012. Accordingly, we removed his name from MYA’s website a few months ago,” Harsha added