Just four months after the UPA came to power in May 2004 after 8 years in the wilderness, Sonia Gandhi was writing to the then Finance Minister P Chidambaram on behalf of the directors of Tehelka to influence a serious probe into the magazine’s financiers.
Two letters written in September 2004 and exclusively available with republicworld.com reveal that the Congress President was asking India’s Finance Minister to look into a presentation made to her by the Director of First Global, the main investors in Tehelka.com “on priority”. The letters are also a part of a forthcoming book by Jaya Jaitly.
Republic World has exclusive access to these two sensational letters.
LETTER 1 : TEHELKA DIRECTORS TO SONIA GANDHI
Written by Tehelka Financiers – First Global Directors Devina Mehra and Shankar Sharma to Mrs Gandhi puts down “the reliefs” they were “asking for.”
LETTER 2 : SONIA GANDHI TO P CHIDAMBARAM
The letter accessed by Republic even has file noting by Chidambaram asking for the ED and the CBDT to be ‘consulted’.
#SoniaLetterLeaked is part of a forthcoming book Life Among the Scorpions written by Jaya Jaitly who was the then President of the Samata Party.
Jaitly in her exclusive interview to Republic TV raises many questions.
SHE ASKS:
Why were the Directors of First Global seeking help from Congress President Sonia Gandhi?
Was Mrs Gandhi trying to save First Global from investigations and if yes, why?
Was there any link between the Congress and the Tehelka sting operation and should it have been probed?
REPUBLIC ASKS JAYA JAITLY
Are you saying Congress was hand in glove with Tehelka?
Was the sting operation carried out with political motives?
JAYA JAITLY REPLIES
“I don’t have any evidence but it certainly was in their interest. Because from day one when they were holding their expose press conference, Priyaranjan Das Munshi came running into Parliament with transcripts saying, ”Sarkar Gayi”. (The government’s gone) How were they so closely tuned and how were they at every step helped by Kapil Sibal and finally by Sonia Gandhi to be protected?”
