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Alleging a conspiracy to dislodge the NDA government, he said he would file a defamation suit against Tehelka. "The extent of damages to be claimed is being worked out," he told reporters in Bangalore.
"Nobody approached me. No money was paid to me," Prasad, a Samata Party leader, said rebutting the claims of Tehelka that Rs 200,000 was handed over to him reportedly at the residence of former defence minister George Fernandes.
He said he was not in Delhi on December 28, when reporters of Tehelka, posing as arms dealers, claimed to have paid the money to him. He claimed to have left the national capital soon after the winter session of Parliament ended on December 23.
Maintaining that he was in Mysore at the time when the purported meeting took place, Prasad, whose party leader Jaya Jaitly quit as Samata Party president following the expose, said he returned to Delhi only on February 18.
He said from the tapes, it was clear that only Jaitly, a retired army officer and two men from Tehelka were present and asked how the portal could claim that the money was paid to him for the party's national convention in Mysore in January.
"There is nothing in the tape to show receipt of money," he said and asserted that no Samata Party functionary was present.
He said Rs 800,000 to Rs one million was spent on the convention.
PTI
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