New Delhi, Aug 25 (India Today) : A day after Union minister Smriti Irani levelled charges against Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi over the Amethi land, the Congress hit back, claiming that her charges were fake as her degree.

"Smriti Irani's latest allegations against Rahul Gandhi are as fake as her Yale degree," Mahila Congress chief Shobha Oza tweeted.

Irani, who contested the 2014 national polls from Amethi against Rahul, attended a rally there on Sunday and alleged that the Congress leader sold off 65 acres of land, which was actually allocated to a bicycle factory, to a charitable trust run by his family.

"The land was given to the trust after an auction, the permission for which was not taken by the UPSIDC," Mahesh Gupta, principal secretary (infrastructure and industrial department) said.

Advocate Uma Shanker Pandey, who brought the matter to Irani's notice, said, "The land was given on a 99-year lease to Samrat Industries for setting up a bicycle factory. In order to generate employment for locals, the government also gave a subsidy of Rs 55 crore. The factory owners declared themselves bankrupt in 1993 and it was sold to the trust for Rs 20 Crore in an auction in February this year," Pandey said.

In response, former Congress MP Sandeep Dikshit, retaliated, saying that the Rajiv Gandhi Trust should file a case against the minister as her allegations were not based on facts.