A Swedish bus maker paid bribes, including to an unnamed minister, in India to win bus contracts in seven states between 2013 and 2016, Reuters reported from Stockholm, quoting an investigation by three media outlets, including Swedish news channel SVT.

Some media reports in India said a company with ties to the family of Nitin Gadkari, BJP leader and Union surface transport and highway minister, was provided a luxury bus that was allegedly used in the wedding celebrations of his daughter in 2016.

The Wire news portal quoted Gadkari’s office as denying the allegations and saying that the claims were “malicious, fabricated and baseless”.

The Swedish company is Scania, a truck and bus-making unit under Volkswagen AG’s commercial vehicle arm Traton SE.

Gadkari’s office told the portal that he was “a pioneer in introducing Scania’s ethanol-run bus in Nagpur as a part of his drive to bring in green public transport in India” and it was purely a commercial arrangement between the Nagpur civic body and the Swedish bus manufacturers. Gadkari and his family had nothing to do with it, the minister’s office added.

An investigation started by Scania in 2017 showed serious shortcomings by employees, including senior management, a Scania spokesperson told Reuters. The “misconduct included alleged bribery, bribery through business partners and misrepresentation”, Reuters quoted the spokesperson as saying.

The Scania spokesperson said the company had since stopped selling city buses in the Indian market and the factory in the country had been closed down.

The spokesperson said its investigation of wrongdoing had not involved the police as the evidence was not strong enough to lead to prosecution.