Rajasthan government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Portugese hospital two months after Lalit Modi was treated there, it has emerged.
New reports suggest that the Vasundhra Raje government signed an agreement with the Champalimaud Foundation to set up a state-of-the-art cancer institute in Jaipur, on October 2, 2014. Modi’s wife, Minal, was treated at the same hospital in August, 2014.
However, the Rajsthan health minister, Rajendra Singh Rathore denied any links between the two.
Indian Express quoted him as saying, ““We were not aware that Lalit Modi’s wife was treated at the same Portuguese hospital with which Rajasthan government signed an agreement.”
In a statement Raje had said, “The cancer centre will benefit the state hugely, particularly those who cannot bear hefty cost of treatment. The cooperation in this regard will also bolster relations with Portugal.”
As part of the agreement. the government allotted a plot of land within the premises of Rajasthan Health Science University in Jaipur’s Pratap Nagar and more than 30000 square metres in size for the institute.
The MoU was signed by the member of the Board of Administration of the Champalimaud Foundation, João Silveira Botelho, and the Principal Secretary for Medical Education in Rajasthan, J C Mohanty, in the presence of Raje and Foundation President Leonor Beleza.
Modi, in an interview to a channel on Tuesday, revealed on Tuesday that Raje had accompanied his wife to Portugal twice, first in 2012 and then in 2013.
This revelation came after the documents sent by Modi’s legal team said how the Rajasthan chief minister had agreed to become the ‘secret witness’ for the latter in his application for UK immigration. Raje, however, had rubbished this claim saying that she didn’t know what “documents people were talking about.”
