In his letter to national secretary Pankaj Gupta, Bhushan has objected to Khetan's inclusion in the national disciplinary committee, saying that he has been accused of "writing a planted story for Tehelka in defence of Essar company which was chargesheeted by CBI in the 2G case". Bhushan says in his article titled, "The Madness in CBI's method", which appeared in the Tehelka issue of December 31, 2011, Khetan had sought to defend Essar by relying on the opinion of the then Union law minister, Salman Khurshid, "the very opinion for which we had charged Khurshid".
Bhushan has relied on what he claims to be are internal emails of Essar which allegedly show that Nancy Jain of the corporate communication department of the company had written to her bosses on January 6, 2012, talking about Khetan's story as one she had "coordinated" in December 2011. He has also alleged that Tehelka was paid several crores by Essar at that time for their 'Thinkfest' at Goa. "Will this therefore not qualify as a paid news story? Instead of removing Khetan from the party for this, he has now been rewarded by being appointed as the chairperson of the Delhi Dialogue commission and as a member of the national disciplinary committee," said Bhushan.
While Khetan could not be reached despite repeated attempts, the party maintains that Khetan, an investigative journalist, was Bhushan's "blue-eyed boy till the Lok Sabha elections" when he contested from the New Delhi seat.
"Why were these objections not raised earlier? These allegations are baseless and sound similar to the charges raised by the Bharatiya Janata Party," said senior party member Ashutosh.
Tarun Tejpal, editor of Tehelka in 2011, told TOI that Khetan had an impeccable record and there was no reason to doubt his integrity.
Meanwhile, in a statement, Essar has said that it "has noticed that an eminent lawyer, Prashant Bhushan, has made serious allegations against it through a letter made public on Monday. Essar is a responsible corporate and we adhere to the highest standards of governance and ethics. We categorically deny the allegations made as false, baseless and self-serving. Essar has not violated any law of the land and neither has it ever paid anyone for publishing favourable articles."
Khetan is presently the chairperson of the Delhi Dialogue Commission, Delhi government's thinktank to help it make policy decisions. Khetan was instrumental in drafting the party's manifesto for the Delhi elections.
While Khetan could not be reached despite repeated attempts, the party maintains that Khetan, an investigative journalist, was Bhushan's "blue-eyed boy till the Lok Sabha elections when he contested from the New Delhi seat.
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