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RTI clean chit to A K Antony's wife

In 2012, it was alleged that AAI bought Elizabeth Antony's paintings for Rs 28 crore.

Kochi: Four years after it was reported that Elizabeth Antony, wife of senior Congress leader A.K. Antony, had sold her paintings for a whopping Rs 28 crore, an RTI has now revealed that two of her paintings were sold to Airport Authority of India (AAI) for Rs 2.5 lakh. The allegation that she sold her painting when Mr Antony was defence minister for a huge price had gone viral. Ms Elizabeth had refuted the allegations in 2012 itself. With the official with the RTI revelation her stance has been vindicated.

Ms Elizabeth revealed about the RTI reply via a Facebook post. “An associate of ours filed an RTI regarding the matter and have received a very clear reply about the number of paintings sold and the cost of each painting, the dates and the banking transaction details of the purchases,” she posted. As per the RTI reply, Ms Elizabeth sold only two pictures and the cost was Rs 1.25 lakh each. S. Supriya, Sr Manager of Airports Authority of India gave the RTI reply to one M.S. Vishnu Sankar.

As per the RTI reply, two paintings were published in connection with the New International Terminal Building's commissioning from Navoothan Charitable Foundation, New Delhi-based on the recommendation of the duly constituted committee. “The truth was never that difficult to be uncovered thanks to the Right to Information Act,” Ms Elizabeth said in the post. There were reports that Airport Authority of India (AAI) purchased eight paintings by Ms Elizabeth for an undisclosed amount for displaying them at select airports. She is the president of Navoothan Charitable Foundation.

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
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