An RTI reply from the Prime Minister’s Office has said that the PM Modi’s businessman friend Gautam Adani’s visit to 7 Racecourse Road in Delhi was exempt from disclosure ‘of information under section 8(1) and 11 of the Right to Information Act.

An Ahmedabad based RTI activist had asked the PMO to provide the information regarding total number of visits by Adani to “PM’s residence at 7 RCR” since his election as India’s prime minister in May 2014.

The RTI reply said that the prime minister ‘meets people from all walks of life not necessarily upon formal request,” adding that often the prime minister’s guests requested their meeting be kept secret.

“Sometimes persons meeting even request for these very reasons that the very fact of the meeting having taken place be kept secret,” the reply added.

Prime Minister Modi’s friendship with the businessman Gautam Adani has been a subject of intense debate for quite sometime. He has always accompanied the PM on his foreign trips drawing criticism from the opposition parties.