Dehradun NGO chairman, Padma Shri Avdhash Kaushal, alleges N D Tiwari had asked for Australian interns
Dehradun NGO chairman, Padma Shri Avdhash Kaushal,u00a0alleges N D Tiwari had asked for Australian interns
Former Andhra Pradesh governor and disgraced senior Congress leader N D Tiwari seems to be fascinated by the number three. On December 26, a day after ABN channel, owned by Telugu daily Andhra Jyothi showed clippings of Tiwari in an alleged sex romp with three women at the Raj Bhavan, Tiwari resigned on 'health grounds'.u00a0
|
|
Disgraced: Former Andhra Pradesh governor Narayan Dutt Tiwari resigned last week after being allegedly caught on tape in a sex scandal. PIC/AP |
Now, a week later, Avdhash Kaushal, a Padma Shri awardee and chairman of the NGO RLEK (Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra) in Dehradun, has alleged that when Tiwari was the chief minister of Uttaranchal in 2002, his relative (another minister) who had come as a chief guest to the NGO had asked him to provide three Australian girls to Tiwari in exchange for money. The incident happened a few months after Tiwari took office.
The interns
"Every year we have interns from law universities abroad and all across India who come to work at our institute for a short while. We had a function about six years ago on forests and development. We had called the then forest and urban development state minister Nav Prabhat, a relative of Tiwari. He saw the three interns who were also present in the function and asked me to hand them over to Tiwari," said Kaushal.
Big no
Kaushal also added that he was shocked on hearing the minister's request and refused the demand. "I tried to meet him several times after I turned down his request, but he never met me. I have the documents to prove the requests."
Unesco awardee Kaushal whose NGO has also been awarded the Unesco award for an innovative education programme in March 2007 said that during a party at Tiwari's residence in Delhi, where then Vice President of India, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat was also present, he had met Rohit Shekhar and his mother at the party. Shekhar is believed to be Tiwari's illegitimate son. "I had received an award from Shekawat and during that party, he was introducing a woman to the vice president as his wife, but did not introduce the boy with her. The woman snapped at him and forced him to admit that the boy was his son."
A few days ago, activists of the NGO had protested and staged a dharna in front of Tiwari's house at the Forest Research Institute, Dehradun against his alleged corrupt practices. "We will pressure the government into opening cases against him. He has handed lands to his men free of cost and promoted young women as his state ministers. Everyone here knows what he's about, but no one spoke out because of fear. Now the skeletons are tumbling out of the cupboard.
| Who is Avdhash Kaushal? |
|
Kaushal received a Padma Shri for social work in 1986. He is also the pioneer of Public Interest Litigation who has filed the first environmental PIL in the Supreme Court known as Mussoorie Mining Case. He has also been declared the Man of the Year by the magazine, The Week. |
| The Tiwari Resignation |
|
Narayan Dutt Tiwari was appointed as Governor of Andhra Pradesh on 19 August 2007 and was sworn in on 22 August. He resigned as the governor on 26 December 2009, citing "health grounds." His departure followed a sex scandal that began with the broadcast by Telugu language cable news channel ABN Andhra Jyothi of a video that allegedly showed Tiwari in bed with three women at his official residence in the Raj Bhavan. A police complaint was filed against Tiwari for " abusing minor girls, blackmail and misuse of office" and the Raj Bhavan staff are being interrogated by police about details related to the scandal, alleged to be the result of the fallout of a mining deal.u00a0 Tiwari publicly apologised, but claimed that he was being "framed" by "a political conspiracy." On 27 December 2009, Ekkadu Srinivasan Lakshmi Narasimhan was appointed to discharge the duties of governor for the region until regular arrangements for the office are made.
|
