New Delhi :  Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Veerappa Moily who hails from Karkala in coastal Karnataka, is  caught in a controversy which seems to be the latest in the list of scams  in which the UPA government is involved.

Presently, allegations are being heard that Moily had misused his office to raise funds for a Trust owned by his family. It has come to light that  funds have been raised  from a top company  for the Trust owned by Veerappa Moily’s son Harsha Moily, while the former was the Corporate Affairs Minister.

Moily however  refutes the allegation and argues that the funds have been secured  under the Corporate  Social Responsibility and that everything was in accordance to rules.

It may be recalled here that there had been several question marks regarding the links which Moily had with Reliance  during his tenure as Corporate Affairs Minister. This is amply justified by the fact that a Reliance official  is advisor in the Trust run by the Moily family. There has also been an allegation since long that Moily had lobbied for Reliance  with regard to extract natural gas in Krishna-Godavari basin.

It was in the year 2005 that Veerappa Moily’s son Harsha Moily had set up the Moksha Yuga Access India Private Ltd (MYA). The firm which  was on the verge of bankruptcy was revived only after Moily became the Union Minister in 2009. The main business of the company is dairy farming. American and Mauritius companies have 50 per cent stake in the firm, while Harsha and his sister own 20 per cent of shares.