Oppn seeks probe into ‘zoom’ in Shah son’s biz

New Delhi, October 8 

Opposition parties today sought a probe into claims in a that a company owned by BJP chief Amit Shah’s son saw a huge rise in its turnover after his party came to power in 2014. The charge was rejected by the BJP and Shah’s son, Jay Amit Shah, who termed the report as “false, derogatory and defamatory”.

Training guns on the Modi government, the Congress, Left and AAP demanded an investigation, with Congress leader Kapil Sibal calling it a case of “crony capitalism”. Sitaram Yechury of the CPM claimed it was the latest in a series of cases of corruption under the Modi government.

“Will you give directions to the CBI to probe the matter? Will you ask the ED to arrest these people?” Sibal asked.

The demand from the Opposition came after a media report on filings with the Registrar of Companies (RoC) showing the turnover of Jay-owned Temple Enterprise had zoomed by 16,000 times during 2015-16 at Rs 80 crore over the previous year.

Sibal, citing the RoC filings, alleged that Kusum Finserve LLP, in which Jay had a 60 per  cent stake, had got a contract in Madhya Pradesh in the wind power sector, despite the company being engaged in stock-trading.

Putting up a strong defence, Union Minister Piyush Goyal released a statement by Jay, announcing he would file a Rs 100-crore lawsuit against the author, editor and owner of the news website.

“The article makes false, derogatory and defamatory imputation against me by creating in the minds of right-thinking people an impression that my business owes its ‘success’ to my father’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,” Jay said.

Sibal also alleged that a company owned by Jay had secured a loan of Rs 25 crore from a cooperative bank without sufficient collateral security, besides a loan of Rs 10.35 crore from the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Limited, a public sector firm under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, which was under Goyal.

Asked if there was any wrongdoing, Sibal replied: “I am talking about crony capitalism. Offence will come to light when we get to know why the loan was sanctioned. We know who the CBI and ED will investigate and who the agencies will not. The issue is whether the PM is honest enough to order a probe against Shah’s son.”

Attacking Modi, Yechury tweeted, “Latest in the series of corruption cases under Modi. Birla-Sahara Diary, GSPCL, Vyapam, Lalit Modi, rice and mining scams. Why is PM silent? CPI leader D Raja demanded a “high-level SIT probe by  courts”. — PTI