Charges a bunch of lies: Sahai

Facing pointed questions from the media, Union tourism minister Subodh Kant Sahai said while Sudhir K Sahai is his brother, he (Sudhir) is not a director or a shareholder in SKS Ispat as claimed in the media.

Facing pointed questions from the media, Union tourism minister Subodh Kant Sahai said while Sudhir K Sahai is his brother, he (Sudhir) is not a director or a shareholder in SKS Ispat as claimed in the media.

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"He (Sudhir) is my brother, there is no question of that. He is an honourary executive director (of SKS Ispat). An engineer, he has his own independent steel business," said Sahai addressing the media.

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The tourism minister is embroiled in a controversy over allocation of a coal block in Jharkhand.

Sahai claims the blocks had already been allocated when he wrote a letter to the PMO.

"The Fatehpur coal block was already allocated to SKS Ispat and Prakash Industries much prior to my letter to the PMO," Sahai said.

The coal block allocation issue is in the middle of a storm after a CAG report earlier this month said that lack of transparency in allocation of the blocks to private players resulted in a loss of Rs 1.86 lakh crore to the exchequer as on March 11 last year.

Squarely blaming the BJP, Sahai said: "BJP is known to frame lies and that's the reason they are not letting Parliament function. The allegations against me are a bunch of lies… I was not involved in coal block allocation."

Asked if he would resign after the allegations, Sahai shot back: "For what". BJP had asked for Sahai's resignation accusing him of seeking the PM's "personal intervention" for allocation of two blocks to a private firm.