Former hockey chief KPS Gill alleges Arun Jaitley got daughter appointed as HI counsel

With the controversy over his alleged involvement in the finanical irregularities at DDCA refusing to die down, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is facing yet another allegation. This time it’s from former Hockey India Federation chief KPS Gill. According to various reports, Gill, who is an ex-cop, has accused Jaitley of using his position as the advisory member of the Hockey India League board to make his daughter, Sonali Jaitley, the legal counsel for Indian hockey’s governing body. [caption id=“attachment_2557324” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Arun Jaitley (L) and KPS Gill. IBNLive[/caption] In a letter to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejiriwal, Gill has also alleged that huge sums of money were paid to Jaitley’s daughter as consulting fees and has demanded a probe, urging the Delhi government to probe into the BJP stalwart’s “conflict of interest” in the national hockey body, a report on India Today added. Hockey India President Narinder Batra strongly refuted the allegations, saying Gill’s charges were “baseless,” according to a PTI report. IHF secretary Ashok Mathur confirmed the development, saying the letter was sent to Kejriwal two days back. “Yes, Mr. Gill has written to Delhi Chief Minister urging him to investigate Mr. Jaitley’s confilct of interest in HI . As HI is registered under Registrar of Societies, Delhi, the Delhi government has every right to investigate into the complaint,” Mathur told PTI when contacted. Jaitley has earlier sued six people, including Kejriwal for Rs 10 crore in a defamation suit for their comments that DDCA had seen corruption when it was under Jaitley. This is not the first time Jaitley’s involvement with the hockey federation has come under the scanner. BJP parliamentarian and former cricket Kirti Azad had this to say in his salvo against Arun Jaitley earlier this week: “Is it true that your daughter and son-in-law are active members in Hockey India? How much money has been paid to them over the last five years for retainership in Hockey India, for consultancy and for being several committees of Hockey India?” AAP leader Ashutosh had earlier accused Jaitley on 18 December of putting pressure on ONGC to give an amount of Rs 5 crore to Hockey India and also sought to know the reason behind the grant. In a fresh tirade against Jaitley, relating to allegations of corruption in Delhi’s cricket body DDCA under his watch, the AAP leader also asked the Union Finance Minister to disclose his close relationship with current Hockey India President Narinder Batra. Even then Batra, on his part, had termed the allegations as ‘baseless’ and said that AAP party officials were ‘shooting in the dark.’ Meanwhile, hundreds of AAP workers led by several party MLAs protested near Jaitley’s residence on Wednesday, demanding his resignation over the DDCA row, prompting police to resort to use of water cannons and minor lathicharge. The party will hold similar protests in all district headquarters across the country on December 26, senior party leader Sanjay Singh said. The protestors, who gathered near the Race Course Metro Station, were stopped by a heavy security contingent when they marched towards Jaitley’s residence at Tughlaq Road here and were taken to Parliament Street Police Station after detention. “We are here to ask Arun Jaitley to kindly step down as he is in-charge of departments which would have those documents that could prove his guilt or innocence. So as a good citizen and a senior lawyer of Supreme Court he is duty-bound to follow the footsteps of (LK) Advani,” AAP MLA Somnath Bharti told reporters. With inputs from PTI