Albasit Khan, the former security and vigilance head of Essar, who blew the whistle on the Essar Tapes after exiting the company in 2011, has suddenly re-surfaced after apparently remaining incommunicado with his lawyer Suren Uppal.
In a letter sent to Uppal this afternoon at 3.24 pm from a gmail account, Albasit Khan washes his hands off the tapes, which form the crux of Uppal’s letter to prime minister Narendra Modi.
Below is Khan’s full, unedited letter sent first to S. Khandwawala, the current security, intelligence and vigilance head of Essar, and then forwarded to Outlook by Essar’s public relations team:
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Mr Uppal,
I am writing to express my shock and dismay at the articles which have appeared this morning in the Indian Express newspaper and the Outlook magazine wherein you have made a number of allegations against me and my former employers.
In substance, you have alleged that I have engaged in some illegal surveillance, interception and tapping of phones during my employment / association with the Essar Group. As you are fully aware, the said allegation is absolutely incorrect, false and baseless and is a story concocted by you to engage in a criminal enterprise.
In regard to the allegations which have appeared in the media, I would like to clarify for the record as follows :
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- On or around January 2016, I met with you and sought your advice regarding certain tape recordings which had been given to me for safekeeping by a senior police official of the Mumbai Crime Branch during my association with him, source and authenticity of which is unknown.
- I approached you in regard to this matter on the mistaken understanding that you are an eminent lawyer practicing in the Supreme Court and would be able to offer proper and legal advice. I have never hired you or given you the mandate to represent me.
- Instead, after listening to these tapes, and sensing an opportunity to extract money from many corporate bigwigs, you created and concocted this story about my having conducted such surveillance illegally during my employment with Essar Group.
- Over the course of our discussions over 3 months between January and March, I had repeatedly informed you that I have no interest in participating in this criminal enterprise which was entirely dreamt up by you.
- The “Caution Notice” purportedly sent on my behalf to various parties was not authorized by me and its contents are false and incorrect.
- After I came to know that you had made demands for huge monies from Essar Group and Reliance Group using my name and exposing me to threat, I stopped all further interaction with you.
- Subsequently, you have made repeated phone calls to my friend, trying to persuade me to support your illegal extortion scheme and threatening that if I did not do so, you would make such deals on your own. Transcripts of these conversations are also available with me.
It appears that since your allegations / notice were not being taken seriously, you have now resorted to having them published in the media so as to create prejudice and pressure me into taking a position supporting your illegal actions.
I once again ask that you cease trying to involve me in your criminal enterprise, else I will have to take necessary legal action against you.
Basit Khan
