Wednesday, December 22 2004 21:05 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Vadodara: Completely denying the allegations that he had paid money to Best Bakery prime witness Zaheera Sheikh to turn hostile in court, BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) MLA Madhu Srivastava today (Dec 22, 2004) termed it as 'baseless'.

Talking to reporters here after a sting operation by 'Tehelka' newspaper claimed that Madhu Srivastava, his cousin Chandrakant and others paid Rs 18 lakhs to Zaheera to turn hostile, the BJP MLA said, "Tehelka has no other business in life and that is why they are after such things. They have not shown anybody giving or taking any money...so what is the big deal in this report."

Madhu emphasised that he had nothing to do at all with the Best Bakery case and thus there was no reason of giving money to Zaheera at all for any purpose.

When asked about his future course of action following the TV expose that included footage of him discussing about the case, the BJP MLA said, "I will talk in detail with my party heads and then decide on a course of action."

Madhu's cousin Chandrakant Srivastav also rebuffed Tehelka's claims and said that the entire footage shown was fabricated.