Explanations Galore in 'Mobilegate'; No Wrongdoings; Says RJD Chief
Patna: December
13, 2004
In spite of the damning phone record of the incarcerated Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Pappu Yadav being made public, the leader, through his representative Surendra Singh Yadav, on Sunday, said that this whole "Mobilegate" was the creation of the opposition leaders and the media was adding fuel to the fire.
Surendra Yadav said that the phone seized in the prison actually belonged to the MP's sister but was being used by his father Chandra Narayan Yadav when he visited his son at the Beur Jail. "The phone was accidentally left behind by Pappu Yadav's father and the Pappu Yadav used it hardly a few times," the MPs trusted lieutenant said.
He further insisted that the media lied about recovering the phone from Pappu Yadav's shoes. "The phone was recovered from the possession of another inmate," said Yadav's representative without offering any explanation as to how the phone that belonged to Pappu Yadav's sister, and was left in the jail by his father, found its way into the hands of another prisoner.
As was reported in the media earlier, Pappu Yadav allegedly made 670 calls from his cell phone to other RJD ministers, including Jail Minister Raghvendra Pratap Singh, Irrigation Minister Jagadanand Singh, Urban Development Minister Narayan Yadav and Energy Minister Shyam Rajak, senior public officials and family members.
Meanwhile, trying to downplay the new revelation about Pappu Yadav's calls made from his prison cell, the RJD chief and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, while inaugurating the 400 KV Kahalgaon-Biharsharif transmission line at Biharsharif on Sunday, said there was no system in the world that could trace where the calls were made from.
Blaming the media for blowing the incident out of proportion, Yadav said that the media, instead of providing coverage to the positive things happening in Bihar, was focusing on an incident that had virtually no bearing on the state that was on its way to progress and development.
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