NEW DELHI
The allegation of defalcation and garnering unprecedented profits in recent years by an Ahmedabad-based company owned by BJP chief Amit Shah’s son Jay has turned into a major political row with Congress on Sunday demanding actions from Prime Minister Narendra Modi while the BJP rubbishing the charges.
Mr Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah said all his businesses were “legitimate” and he announced that he would file criminal defamation suits against the wesbite owner, editor and also the journalist.
Charges against Amit Shah’s son false and derogatory, says BJP
The Congress charge against the BJP leadership was led by none other than party vice-president Rahul Gandhi, who also linked the episode – as surfaced in an article on a website ‘The Wire’ – to Mr Modi’s much talked about demonetisation move.
“We finally found the only beneficiary of Demonetisation. It’s not the RBI, the poor or the farmers”.
In a tweet, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said, “We finally found the only beneficiary of demonetisation. It’s not the RBI, the poor or the farmers. It’s the Shah-in-Shah of Demo. Jai Amit.”
Highlight of The Wire report
Turnover of a company owned by Shah’s son increased 16,000 times over in the year following election of PM Narendra Modi
Revenue from company owned by Amit Shah’s son jumped from just Rs 50,000 to over Rs 80,00,00,000 in a single year
Firm of Amit Shah’s son, whose business is chiefly stock trading, turns to windmill generation with PSU loan
Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Sunday asked if Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be open to calling for an investigation of Jay Amitbhai Shah, son of Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah, after a news report revealed his company had a huge spike in revenues the year after Modi came to power. A report in the Wire details the growth of Jay Shah’s company, Temple Enterprise Private Ltd, from revenues of Rs 50,000 in 2014-’15 to Rs 80.5 crore in 2015-’16. The report also reveals a number of loans received by companies connected to Jay Shah, based on documents filed with the Registrar of Companies.
Online news portal ‘The Wire’ has claimed that a company owned by Amit Shah’s son Jay Amitbhai Shah saw a 16,000 times jump in turnover in a year.
Based on the filings with the Registrar of Companies (ROC), the report claimed that Temple Enterprise Private Limited — the company owned by Mr. Jay Shah — saw an increase in turnover from ₹50,000 in 2014-15 to ₹80 crore in 2015-16.
In response to the reports, Amit Malviya, head of the BJP’s information technology cell, tweeted that the report was “hollow”.
“No favour. No impropriety. Only malicious imputations,” Mr. Malviya said in a series of tweets. “Is Jay Shah not allowed to take loan on market rates of interest from a registered NBFC? Where is the favour/impropriety?”
The report also claimed that another company, Kusum Finserve, where Mr. Jay Shah is a partner, got a loan from the Kalupur Commercial Cooperative Bank against a collateral of Rs 7 crore.
When pointed out that a 16,000-times jump in turnover of Mr. Jay Shah’s company doesn’t show any wrongdoing, Mr. Sibal countered by saying,“Many private persons who didn’t occupy any position were targeted when we were in power.”
The former Union Law Minister, without naming Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra, referred to the BJP’s stand. “They were also targeted and asked why should they be given lands, why should they get loans? You remember? So the same thing is applicable here,” said Mr. Sibal.