Congress refuses to comment on allegations against PM advisor

New Delhi, Apr 29 (ANI): The Congress Party on Sunday refused to comment on reports that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's advisor T.K.A. Nair was involved in caught in a land row in Bangalore.

Congress party spokesperson Rashid Alvi said: "I don't know the details. I would comment on it after knowing the details."

Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party (SP) tried to play down the issue as the land had been returned.

"It has been given back. I think we shouldn't put any blame on Nair. He is very respectable advisor to the Prime Minister. I think he should not have involved himself in this kind of favouritism," SP spokesperson Shahid Siddiqui added.

'The Hindu' newspaper on Sunday reported that state-run defence undertaking, the Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML), made at least two irregular allotments of housing sites to Nair's niece Preethy Prabha and to a friend Uma Devi Nambiar in December 2008 at throwaway prices in Bangalore.

The largesse was made in violation of rules when complaints by a whistle-blower about the role of BEML Chairman and Managing Director V. R. S. Natarajan in the controversial all-terrain Tatra truck deal -made in 2005 - were pending with the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), the Defence Ministry and the Prime Minister's Office. (ANI)