While the Opposition has demanded a probe into allegations that fortune of a company owned by BJP chief Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah changed dramatically after the Modi Government came to power at the Centre, the BJP on Sunday rubbished the charges against him, saying that the former will file a 100-crore civil and criminal defamation suit against a media house for publishing the report.
According to a news story published in The Wire, the company balance sheets and annual reports obtained from the RoC reveal that in the financial years ending March 2013 and 2014, Shah’s Temple Enterprise Private ltd engaged in negligible activity and recorded losses of Rs 6,230 and Rs 1,724 respectively. In 2014-15, it showed a profit of Rs 18,728 on revenues of only Rs 50,000 before jumping to a turnover of Rs 80.5 crore in 2015-16.
The astonishing surge in Temple Enterprise's revenues came at a time when the firm received an unsecured loan of Rs 15.78 crore from a financial services firm KIFS owned by Rajesh Khandwala, the samdhi (in-law) of Parimal Nathwani, a Rajya Sabha MP and top executive of Reliance Industries, the report said.
The massive increase in revenues is described in the filings as coming from the "sale of products". This included Rs 51 crore of foreign earnings, up from zero the previous year.
The revenue of KIFS Financial Services for the same financial year when the loan was given was Rs 7 crore. The annual report of KIFS Financial Services also does not reflect the Rs 15.78 crore unsecured loan given to Temple Enterprise.
One year later, in October 2016, however, Jay Shah's company suddenly stopped its business activities altogether, declaring, in its director's report, that Temple's net worth had "fully eroded" because of the loss it posted that year of Rs 1.4 crore and its losses over earlier years, the report said.
Referring to a story, Sibal also o alleged that a firm Kusum Finserve llP, in which Jay Amit Shah had 60 per cent stake, had got a contract in Madhya Pradesh in wind power sector despite the company being engaged in stock trading.
"Today, we ask a question to the Prime Minister, the pradhan sevak ... Now, what do you have to say about crony capitalismIJ Will you give direction to the CBI to probe the matterIJ Will you ask ED to arrest these people," Sibal asked at a Press conference here.
CPI(M)'s Sitaram Yechury claimed that it is the latest in a series of cases of corruption under the Modi Government.
Rejecting the allegations, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said that the loan was taken by Jay Amit Shah's company 'Temple Enterprise Private lTD', on commercial interest.
Maintaining the charges as mischievous, malicious and baseless, the Central Minister said that Amit Shah's son Jay Shah will file a criminal defamation suit of Rs 100 crore against author, editor and owner of news website.
Goyal told a Press conference here that the BJP was "confident" that there is no wrongdoing on the part of Jay Amit Shah and also hit out at the Congress for opposing the publication of Justice Dhingra report into the controversial land transactions of Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
"We are not avoiding the issue. On the contrary, we have gone on the offensive," he said.
Goyal says that Jay Shah had given a point-by-point rebuttal to all of the author's questions before the article was published, but still the news website went ahead with the article. He said the BJP rejects any allegation sought to be made against Jay Shah or any of their leaders.
Responding to other suggestions made in the story, Goyal said Jay Amit Shah had taken loans either from non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) or Non-funded Credit Facilities from cooperative bank on purely commercial terms strictly in accordance with law.
He said he has repaid the loans by cheque on commercial rate of interest and within the time stipulated and added that he had mortgaged his family property with the cooperative bank to get the credit facilities.
On his part Jay shah announced he would file a Rs 100 crore defamation case against the media house as he said the article makes "false, derogatory and defamatory amputations against me by creating in the minds of right thinking people and impression that my business owes its success to my father Sri Amit Bhai Shah's political position."
"My businesses are fully legitimate and conducted in a lawful manner on commercial lines which is reflected in my tax records and are through banking transactions. I had taken loans either from NBFC or Non Funded Credit Finance Facilities from Cooperative Banks on purely commercial terms strictly in accordance with the law.
"I have repaid the loans by check on commercial rate of interest and within the time stipulated. I have mortgaged my family property with the Cooperative Bank to get the credit facilities. My lawyer has given details of all my legitimate transaction to the author of the website and questions posed by her were answered with details since I had nothing to hide", he said.
Shah said the website has proceeded in making an absolutely false imputation in a highly slanted article "thereby damaging my reputation I have decided to prosecute the author, editor and owner of the aforesaid news website for criminal defamation and sue them for an amount of Rs 100 crore," he said.