Drop 'lying' Smriti Irani from cabinet: Ex-Goa Cong chief to PM Modi

Silly Souls Bar and Restaurant made headlines after a local RTI activist alleged that the establishment’s liquor licence was renewed in favour of a dead person

Accusing union women and child development minister Smriti Irani of concealing facts about her family’s links to the controversial Silly Souls bar and restaurant in Goa, former state Congress president Girish Chodankar, on Wednesday, demanded Prime Minister Narendra Modi intervene to sort out the issue.

Addressing a press conference here, Chodankar accused Irani of “lying” about the facts pertaining to the case—where she claimed that the premises, where the bar and restaurant was located in the upscale Assagao village in north Goa, was also used by other members of the Irani family, including her husband and children.

As proof of her lies, Chodankar said the GST number allotted to ‘Eightall Food and Beverages’, another company operated by members of the Irani family, mentions the address where the controversial bar and restaurant is located.

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“Now the issue is very simple, whether Silly Soul Café and Bar is run by Smriti Irani’s family, and the way she has reacted to various news,” Chodankar said, adding that she has denied any connection of her family with the controversial bar and restaurant. “She is not telling such lies for the first time… she did it in the past too,” Chodankar told the media.

Silly Souls Bar and Restaurant made headlines after a local Right to Information activist alleged that the establishment’s liquor licence was renewed in favour of a dead person.

Irani’s daughter Zoish was featured in television food shows as the promoter of the posh hospitality joint, even as her legal team, as well as her mother, both denied any linkages. Irani also accused the Congress of running a smear campaign against her.

The excise department is currently enquiring into the complaint.

“Her family is involved in this bar, her husband and children are also part and parcel of the company, who promoted ‘Silly Soul Cafe and Bar’ at Assagao,” Chodankar claimed.

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The former Congress president also said that the hospitality establishment was promoted by ‘Eightall Food and Beverages LLP’, which he claimed was a partnership firm of Irani’s family.

“This firm is promoted by another family firm with Smriti Irani’s husband Zubin Irani having 67 per cent of the shares,” Chodankar said. “As per the documents we have, there is no doubt that Smriti Irani family runs this ‘Silly Soul Bar’, which is promoted by family firms,” he said, while also accusing chief minister Pramod Sawant of trying to protect Irani, his fellow BJP leader.

“Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi should come into the picture and tell whether the example she is setting before the children of the nation is correct or wrong. He should drop her from the cabinet,” Chodankar said.