Links with defaulters: Minister Piyush Goyal in trouble

New Delhi: Union minister Piyush Goyal has landed in a controversy after it emerged that he had links with a loan defaulter company. Goyal was chairman and full time director of Shirdi Industries from 2008 to 2010. During his term, the company had borrowed Rs. 259 crores from a consortium of public sector banks. Later Goyal stepped out from the director board of the company.

Following his departure, the company was declared sick due to liquidity crunch. After Modi-led NDA government came into power, 65 percent of total Rs. 652 crores were written off. The company was run by Ragesh Agarwal and Mukesh Bansal at the time. Shirdi Industries gave a loan of Rs. 1.52 crore to Intercon Advisors, a sister concern of the former. Piyush Goyal’s wife Seema Goyal is the owner of Intercon Advisors. Piyush Goyal was director of the company from 2005 to 2013.

The Central government had informed the parliament that this government has written off a sum of Rs. 2.42 lakh crores loan by corporates.

Congress party has demanded resignation of the minister and called for a magisterial inquiry in the issue. The party pointed out that the government has written off the loan without any conditions. They also strongly criticized the silence of the Prime minister and financial minister in the regard.