Snooping row: Did woman's family get favours from Gujarat govt?

Amid calls for a clarification from Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi on the snooping scandal, it now emerges that the woman at the center of the controversy and her family may have received undue favours from the Gujarat state government. [caption id=“attachment_124199” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Amit Shah hasn’t responded to the allegations. PTI[/caption] The Congress in Gujarat has claimed that the Narendra Modi government awarded the contract for a key solar energy project to the woman’s family though there were better qualified contenders in the fray. Pranlal Soni, known in the Bhuj district as a well-established jeweller, hit the headlines this week when a letter purportedly written by him requested the National Commission for Women not to investigate the snooping scandal. He claimed his daughter, who was being illegally tailed by the Gujarat ATS allegedly at the behest of minister Amit Shah and his unnamed “Saheb”, was fully aware of the surveillance on her. Soni, it now appears, is associated with Bangalore-based smartgrid player in the electricity transmission and distribution systems, Ecolibrium. According to a report in Business Standard , Ecolibrium is owned by his sons Chintan P Soni and Harit P Soni. The report says: “Another member of the Soni family - Pranlal’s 36-year-old Bangalore-based daughter - has also been named in the annual return; she is one of the firm’s directors since its inception in November 2008.” Ecolibrium’s big break was in 2010, a smart-grid project in Gujarat Sachivalaya. Gujarat Congress leader Shaktisinh Gohil has alleged that the company, formed after the woman met Modi, won the contract for the Gandhinagar Grid Project for solar energy, “touted as the biggest project in India in the sector” though it was still a very young firm. This was reportedly in partnership with Torrent Power. According to a report in the Economic Times , “At the insistence of the woman, Modi convened an international solar energy meet in Gandhinagar to facilitate business contacts, Gohil alleged, adding that the government recommended the woman to top industrial houses of the state besides dishing out multi-crore projects to her family.” The woman, an architect now living in Bangalore,was herself reportedly treated “like a VIP” by the Gujarat state government during that period, according to a report in the Mumbai Mirror . In the years before the surveillance was launched, the woman had at least on one occasion had her petrol bills were reimbursed by the government. Her mobile phone bills were also reportedly paid by government departments. Though she had no role there, the woman reportedly attended the Winter Festival in Kutch in 2005. “Item number 81 in the festival’s balance sheet lists payment of Rs 5,153 made to the woman towards mobile recharge and petrol expenses. The payment was made by cheque (6740282) on October 25, 2005. In the festival’s total bill of Rs 2.43 crore, nobody else was paid for mobile recharge,” according to the report, which cites information accessed through the Right to Information. The festival was inaugurated by Chief Minister Narendra Modi. The collector of Kutch was then Pradeep Sharma, the now suspended IAS officer who introduced the woman to Modi – she had been involved in a rebuilding project in Bhuj after the earthquake there and the inauguration of the rebuilt market was conducted at the hands of Modi. While Soni is a fan (like 6.2 million others) of Modi’s Facebook page, locals in Bhuj deny that he was an RSS or BJP member ever. Soni, now 65 years old, lives in Ahmedabad now though he remains a member of Bhuj’s Rotary Club. The family-owned jewellery store in Bhuj, Hem Jewellers, was sold off some time back, according to reports. A report in The Indian Express  says Soni’s family members don’t even know if Soni ever met Modi after the 2004 inauguration of the revamped jewellery market in Bhuj. Soni’s letter has suggested that he was close enough to the chief minister to seek protection for his daughter – and to get not just police protection but 24-hour surveillance of her movements by the Gujarat ATS. Kishor Tanna, incumbent president of the Rotary Club of Bhuj and Soni’s friend, is quoted saying Soni was never too much into politics. “I don’t think he had any contact with the Chief Minister,” he said. Soni’s wife belongs to Bangalore, where the daughter is now based, also where Ecolibrium is based. “The daughter is a landscape architect who also did government projects in Bhuj and Alang,” says the Indian Express report, adding that she got married in 2009.