This is a tight slap on the face of Congress✋! Senior Congress Panchayat leaders are also condemning the shameful & malicious Congress act. pic.twitter.com/wuEdH7Z2gJ



— Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) December 15, 2016

Congress demands Rijiju's resignation; Rijiju says he did no wrong

NEW DELHI: Three Congress leaders in Arunachal Pradesh today came out in support of Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju , who was accused of corruption after he wrote to Power Minister Piyush Goyal seeking his intervention to address the grievances of contractors in a hydro-electric project in the state.Congress leaders Miali Sangchoju, Rina Lali, and Sange Lamu said in a press release that they were "astonished" to learn about the corruption charges levelled against Rijiju.As subcontractors of Patel Engineering - which was awarded a contract for the construction of two dams under the Kameng hydrolectric project - they approched Rijiju, their local MP, as Patel Engineering and the North Eastern Electrical Power Corporation ( NEEPCO ) didn't heed their requests that payments due to them be released, they explained.Rijiju's "conduct in this case was his responsibility towards the people of (the) Projects affected site irrespective of political affiliation," they added.Kiren Rijiju today tweeted that the statement was "a tight slap" on the face of the Congress Here's Rijiju's tweet, along with a photograph of the letter.The controversy he's been embroiled in erupted earlier this week over news reports that the Chief Vigilance Officer of NEEPCO Satish Verma , an IPS officer of Gujarat cadre who probed the Ishrat Jahan encounter case as part of the Special Investigation Team, had sent a report to the CBI, CVC and the Power Ministry highlighting alleged corruption in construction of two dams as part of the 600 mw Kameng Hydel project.In his report, Verma was said to have named Kiren Rijiju and Goboi Rijiju , who he claimed was the minister's cousin, while alleging an "elaborate conspiracy" involving contractors, NEEPCO officials and the West Kameng district administration to defraud the state-run company and the government of funds that "may extend up to Rs 450 crore".Verma, incidentally, has something of a dubious reputation. In 2013, a former home ministry bureaucrat alleged that Verma told him he believed the terror attack on Parliament and the 26/11 Mumbai carnage were "orchestrated" by the government.During his tenure as CVO at NEEPCO, he was issued two notices by the Centre seeking his reply to charges of alleged "misconduct" and "unauthorized absence" from duty.Earlier this week, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala released an audio tape of a purported conversation of the minister's 'cousin' with Verma, and Rijiju's letter recommending that held up payments be released. He alleged that this was a Rs 450-crore scam committed by using false and inflated transportation billsThe Congress demanded Rijiju's resignation.Rijiju, on his part, said he'd simply written to the Power Minister after he received " representations from some people in my constituency in Arunachal West regarding pending bills" and that he'd done no wrong.He also denied that Goboi Rijiju was related to him by blood."Among tribals in a village, everybody is a cousin. He is not related to me by blood. I have no brothers. Both my elder and younger brothers have expired," he said.