Sports Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar clarified that he never accused Indian Hockey Federation President K P S Gill of using government money for personal purposes.
“At no time have I said or implied that Gill had misused funds made available by government to the IHF for any personal purposes,” Aiyar said in a statement.
The minister said his comments were ‘twisted beyond its intent’.
“This was an unforgivable distortion by the news channel concerned of a single sentence wrenched out of context and twisted beyond its intent by the anchor’s commentary. I have no hesitation in publicly tendering my apology to Gill for this unintended slur on his unblemished reputation,” he said.