West Bengal Governor rejects Mamata's claim that he was named in Jain Hawala Case charge-sheet

Rejecting West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's allegation that he was a "corrupt" man who was charge-sheeted in the Jain Hawala Case, Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Monday accused her of spreading "lies and misinformation". Dhankhar described Banerjee's accusations against him as a "knee-jerk reaction" to his raising questions over the contents of the speech he is supposed to read out at the start of the upcoming assembly session.

"The allegations levelled by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee don't have an iota of truth. It is unfortunate that she is spreading misinformation and misinterpreting facts. It doesn't suit a chief minister to make such allegations," he told reporters.

Earlier in the day, Banerjee alleged at a press conference that Dhankhar is a "corrupt" man and was named in a charge-sheet in the 1996 Jain Hawala case.


"She should name the charge-sheet in which I was named. I was never named in any of the charge-sheets in the Jain Hawala Case," he said while referring to Banerjee as her "younger sister".

Jain Hawala Case was a huge politial and financial scandal in the 1990s in which money routed through hawala channels was claimed to have been given to top politicians across various parties.

Those named included L K Advani, V C Shukla, Sharad Yadav and many more. However, the charges against them didn't stand legal scrutiny and the case fell through.

Dhankhar, who shares a strained relationship with the state government, said he was handed over in the afternoon the governor's speech to be read out in the assembly.

"Just 10 minutes before her press conference, I received a call from her. I put forward some questions regarding the governor's speech. She said she has nothing to do (with the speech) as the cabinet had passed it. It seems her comment at the press conference was a knee-jerk reaction," he said.