 "Varun Gandhi slams 'honey-trapping' reports, asserts did not attend defence deal meets")
Issuing a clarification after facing charges of leaking military secrets to an arms dealer and weapon manufacturers after being allegedly "honey-trapped", Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Varun Gandhi on Saturday asserted that all claims were false and frivolous.
In a letter titled "to my fellow countrymen", Gandhi stated that he never attended a meeting of the Defence Consultative Committee, nor did he actively seek or pass on any information.
"I could not and did not have any access to any sensitive defence information, so the question of being allegedly coerces into revealing anything does not even arise. While I am confident that neither of you nor any right thinking person places any credence in these allegations, what I find worrying is that circulation of such baseless accusations at a time when the entire nation is united behind our brave defence forces," the letter said.
Listing out the fact to dismiss the 'malicious' rumours, Gandhi said that he never met Edmond Allen who wrote the letter with the charges against him.
He further stated that it is "ludicrous" to suggest that he was ever blackmailed as he had done nothing wrong, adding that it was even more bizarre to claim that he leaked top secret defence information from the Defence Parliamentary Committee, when every Parliamentarian is well aware that no sensitive defence information is shared with such a panel.
Gandhi went on to emphasise that he and his family have been deeply traumatised by these lies and that he will take legal action against those who deliberately sought to tarnish his reputation and public standing.
"This letter has made very serious allegations against me without any facts, evidence or justification whatsoever. It is unethical that such damaging accusations should have been publicly aired without being scrutinised, verified or even clarified," he said.
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The controversy erupted after Swaraj Abhiyan leaders Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav released a letter written by Edmonds Allen, a New York-based lawyer, to the Prime Minister's Offuce in September stating that Gandhi was honey-trapped and had leaked secret information to arms dealer Abhishek Verma.
Meanwhile, Yogendra Yadav has hit out at the BJP for not taking action against Gandhi, asserting that the saffron party is not taking any action in the matter to safeguard their own.
"In the year 2005 under the Congress regime Submarine were purchased and all know that this deal was made in an unfair manner. The whole country knows that the wrong doing in this deal was camouflaged by the CBI and the then Congress government. The question is why this case has not been opened under the BJP regime," Yadav said.
"Why no action was taken against Abhishek Verma who was accused then. I guess the BJP did not take action because their own MP is involved and second if the saffron party would have taken action against in this case, then it would have not been able to strike the Rafale aircraft deal with the same company," he added.
Allen has alleged that his former business partner and controversial arms dealer Abhishek Verma honey-trapped Gandhi and some senior military officers with foreign sex workers to extract sensitive information about defence deals.
Allen has alleged that Gandhi, as member of the Parliamentary Defence Committee, had access to information that was shared with Verma to "compromise national security'."
The seven-page letter goes on to say that the BJP MP stood "compromised" because of his pictures with foreign escorts and prostitutes.