IT finds gaps in 'investors' of Gadkari's Purti group

The IT department has confirmed that the addresses of as many as 22 companies linked to BJP President Nitin Gadkari’s Purti group of industries are fake, according to a report in the Hindustan Times. “The addresses of these companies are shown in Vidyavihar, Bhandup and Thane. I-T officials found that addresses of some companies shown in Andheri and Fort were changed immediately after the controversy erupted. Officials also discovered that no activities related to the companies were being carried out at the addresses”, said the report. [caption id=“attachment_512979” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  PTI[/caption] The IT department is conducting investigations in to purportedly dubious funding of Gadkari’s Purti group. The story was first broken by the NDTV news channel which established that during Gadkari’s tenure as PWD Minister from 1995 to 1999, a company called Ideal Road Builders was awarded several contracts that saw its turnover rise from Rs 41 crore in 1996 to Rs 67 crore in 1999. It added that after Gadkari demitted office in 2001 and established his Purti group of companies, Ideal Road Builders picked up equity to the tune of about Rs 1.85 crore. Later in an extensive report, the Times of India said that apart from Ideal Road Builders (IRB), a group of 16 companies had invested in the group most of which had directors who were associates of the BJP president or his family and were often headquartered in fictitious addresses. Among the directors of the firms that invested in Purti group include Gadkari’s chaffeur, his accountant and two other employees in the group, one of whom is reportedly a friend of Gadkari’s son. Between 2009-11, Gadkari’s chauffeur Manohar was the director of no less than six companies, the report found, And while even Sudhir Dive, managing director of Purti Power and Sugar Limited, didn’t deny the fact, he offered the defence that Panse is “now a director of only one company.”