Mumbai: As news reports about his having enjoyed the hospitality of the Essar group during a trip to Europe triggered a row, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Friday said he had visited a yacht belonging to them “just to see” it and asserted he never took money from any corporate entity.
“I want to see new things and when Essar people invited me to see their yacht in the sea, I accepted their invitation. I would have gone to see it even if they had placed a ticket of Rs 500 for admission,” Gadkari told.
Gadkari, who had to step down as BJP president after a controversy erupted over his alleged stakes in shell companies in January 2013, said he held no public office at the time of his visit to the yacht anchored off a seaside village on the French Riviera in July that year.
“I want to see new things and when Essar people invited me to see their yacht in the sea, I accepted their invitation. I would have gone to see it even if they had placed a ticket of Rs 500 for admission,” Gadkar said.
“I was not holding any public office…I was not an MP or MLA,” he said. Gadkari, Union Minister of Transport and National Highways, said it was during his trip to Norway when the visit to the luxury yacht ‘Sunrays’ materialised.
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