Digvijay Singh demands CBI probe into UTI scam

Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh today demanded a CBI probe into the UTI scam, in which, the financial body's capital was reduced to Rs 50,000 crore from Rs 75,000 crore, when Yashwant Sinha was the Union Finance Minister during the NDA rule.

Talking to reporters here today, Singh said, "CBI should probe the role of the then Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha into the UTI scam, as its capital was reduced to Rs 50,000 crore from Rs 75,000 crore during the NDA regime."

"When Sinha was the Finance Minister, Subramanyam was made the Chairman of the UTI. During this period, Cyber Space Info Limited Company's 3.45 lakh shares where purchased by the UTI at the rate of Rs 930 per share," Singh said.

He said that the said company belongs to Arvind Choudhry, Anand Choudhry and Vishwa Samvad Kendra's Pradeep Narayan Mathur, who were associated with the RSS and the shares were purchased on the instructions of Sinha's then private secretary Bharat Vyas, Singh claimed.

"After a year, the value of these shares reduced to zero and the capital of UTI, too, reduced to Rs 50,000 crore from Rs 75,000 crore. At that time, the matter was not probed by the then NDA government and now the Congress demanded that the CBI should probe the entire issue, including the role of Sinha," Singh said.

Condemning Sinha's statements against Union Home Minister P Chidambaram over the 2G scam, Singh added that he (Chidambaram) was innocent in the matter.