Former Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik has been summoned by the Central Bureau of Investigation for questioning on April 28 in a case of alleged corruption pertaining to businessman Anil Ambani’s Reliance General Insurance, The Wire reported.

Malik has been summoned by the central agency days after he claimed in an interview with The Wire that Prime Minister Narendra Modi told him not to speak about lapses that led to the Pulwama attack in 2019.

The former governor told PTI on Friday that the central agency had asked him to be present at its Akbar Road guest house in Delhi for “certain clarifications”.

In a tweet later, he wrote: “I have exposed the sins of some people by speaking the truth. Maybe that’s why the call has come. I am the son of a farmer; I will not panic. I stand by the truth.”

The agency will question Malik about his stand on corruption allegations pertaining to a deal between the Jammu and Kashmir government and Reliance General Insurance for providing health insurance to government employees.

The scheme was rolled out in September 2018. However, Malik cancelled the scheme within a month, saying that government employees were opposed to it.

In October 2021, the former governor had claimed that he was told he would get a Rs 300-crore bribe if he cleared two files belonging to “Ambani” and a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader. However, he did not specify what the files pertained to.

Based on his allegations, the Central Bureau of Investigation filed two cases in April 2022.

Malik, in the interview to The Wire, claimed that RSS leader Ram Madhav tried to change his mind about cancelling the insurance scheme for government employees. He said that Madhav was upset when he learned that he had already decided to cancel it.

Commenting on why he was opposed to the insurance scheme, Malik said: “That is because all government employees had to pay Rs 8,500 a year for the scheme. Retired officers had to give more than Rs 20,000. So I said in Delhi, under CGHS [Central Government Health Scheme], we don’t have to pay anything, so why would they pay here?”

Malik also claimed that “bad hospitals” were listed in the Jammu and Kashmir government’s scheme, according to The Wire. “None of the hospitals were of national repute,” he added. “I realised that the hospitals were bad and then good treatment would not be meted out even after taking large amounts.”

Madhav, however, said that Malik’s allegations were completely false. “The CBI has already thoroughly investigated the matter,” he said. “I will be filing defamation charges against the peddlers of these false allegations very soon.”

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Was this the ‘Ambani’ deal that Satyapal Malik said he cancelled as governor of Jammu and Kashmir?

Allegations about Pulwama attack

Malik’s comments about the 2019 Pulwama attack have triggered a political controversy.

On April 14, Malik told The Wire that the Pulwama attack took place due to the incompetence and negligence of the Central Reserve Police Force and the Union home ministry, which was then headed by Rajnath Singh.

On February 14, 2019, an explosive-laden car driven by a suicide bomber rammed into a bus carrying CRPF personnel, killing 40 of them in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district. Pakistani terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed had claimed responsibility for the attack.

Malik claimed that the CRPF had asked the administration to provide aircraft to ferry their personnel, because “such a big convoy does not travel by road”. The convoy comprised 78 vehicles that were transporting over 2,500 personnel.

“They only needed five aircraft, but these were not provided to them,” the former governor said. “I told the prime minister on the same evening that this [the attack] took place because of our mistake. If we had provided them with aircraft, this would not have happened. But he asked me to stay silent about it.”

Opposition leaders said that Malik’s allegations were disturbing and urged the Centre to respond to them. Pakistan’s foreign ministry said the former governor’s claims vindicated its stand that India used “lies and deceit” for its propaganda against Islamabad.