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Onkar Singh in New Delhi
The wife of Thomas Mathew, the Union home ministry official suspended on Monday for allegedly helping Tehelka correspondents in their expose on corruption in defence deals, has vehemently denied her husband's involvement in any wrongdoing.
Speaking to rediff.com at her home in Sainik Nagar in west Delhi on Tuesday, she insisted that her husband is an honest man. "I don't know what to say, but I can tell you he is not the kind of person who would fall for anything," she said.
She refused to reveal her name and insisted on checking this correspondent's ID card. "You know what the IB (Intelligence Bureau) is capable of. That is why I want to double check," she said.
She repeatedly insisted that Mathew, a director-level officer, is an honest man. "Frankly, I have no idea what the charge against him is," she said.
The home ministry has accused Mathew of introducing Tehelka reporters to key officials at the defence ministry.
Mathew's neighbours were full of praise for him. "He is a thorough gentleman who went to office by a chartered bus when a vehicle could be made available to him. His wife is a senior government official, their daughter is a 4th-year student of medicine and their son is into computers," said a neighbour.
Another neighbour pointed out that recently when Mathew got a hefty bill of Rs 80,000 from MTNL, he refused to pay and had the phone disconnected to prevent his son from using it to surf the Internet.
Aniruddha Bahal, the Tehelka correspondent, described the government move to suspend Mathew as "nothing short of a witch-hunt."
"I don't know from where they got the idea that Thomas Mathew was an acquaintance of my colleague Mathew Samuel, who worked with me on Operation West End. I can tell you that Thomas Mathew had nothing to do with the expose," Bahal said.
"The Intelligence Bureau is now looking for scapegoats and they have probably found one in Thomas Mathew," he added.
"If the IB has any questioning to do, they should come to us. Now I hear a friend who gave his London address for Operation West End, is also being harassed. He has been getting calls from all sorts of people claiming to be journalists and wanting to talk to him," Bahal said.
ALSO READ: Home Ministry Official Thomas Mathew Suspended
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