Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has slapped a defamation notice on Sveriges Television (SVT), a Swedish media outlet and ZDF, a German broadcaster on Thursday, 11 March, over the Scania bus row.
According to an investigation by three media outlets along with an internal probe by the truck and bus maker, Swedish bus manufacturer Scania allegedly paid bribes to win bus contracts in India.
The media outlets had put out a report detailing an alleged transaction between the bus maker and a company said to have ties with Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari's sons. The report alleged that a luxury bus called Metrolink HD was gifted by Scania for Gadkari’s daughter’s wedding in Nagpur in 2016.
However, the company, in a statement to The Indian Express on Thursday, 11 March, denied sending any bus to Gadkari for personal use. This comes after the office of the Union transport minister had also denied all allegations and called them, “malicious, fabricated and baseless” on Wednesday.
What the Reports Said
Scania commenced operations in India in 2007, with a manufacturing unit coming up in 2011. As per an investigation by three media outlets, Scania allegedly paid bribes in seven different states between 2013 and 2016.
Serious shortcomings by employees, including senior management, were revealed via an internal investigation by the company that was started in 2017, a Scania spokesperson told Reuters.
“This misconduct included alleged bribery, bribery through business partners and misrepresentation,” the spokesperson was quoted as saying.
The internal investigation report from 2018 was made available to ZDF and SVT.
The Reuters report also highlighted how truck models were allegedly falsified by replacing chassis number and license plates on trucks to sell them to Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) in a $11.8 million (Rs 8 crore) deal.
On the alleged connection with Gadkari in the whole matter, a report by SVT is quoted as saying, “At the end of 2017, Scania’s auditors received tips that Scania had provided India’s Minister of Transport with a specially designed 'luxury bus' as a gift.”
According to the report, sources also provided information to the German vehicle manufacturer Volkswagen, which owns Scania, that the bus was a gift to an Indian minister with the aim of getting an assignment in India.
Gadkari Denies Allegations
The Transport Minister’s Office has repeatedly denied the allegations. Gadkari’s office also offered clarification that the minister was a “pioneer in introducing Scania’s Ethanol-run bus in Nagpur as a part of his drive to bring in green public transport in India”, The Indian Express reported.
It added that he encouraged the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) to initiate a new project and the Nagpur civic body signed a commercial Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Scania.
The transport minister’s office also requested the media, stressing on ‘foreign media’ to refrain from making unsubstantiated claims against Gadkari’s family and the minister. Calling it a “witch-hunt,” the office had further said that if the media fails to comply, the Union Minister will need to take recourse to all necessary legal measures to protect their reputation and integrity.
"The attempts by a section of the media to drag the name of Nitin Gadkari and his family, therefore, are very unfortunate and part of a sinister and malicious campaign to malign Gadkari and tarnish his unblemished reputation as a person of impeccable integrity," an earlier statement had said.
(With inputs from The Indian Express and Reuters)
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