Opposition demands probe against Amit Shah's son

Opposition parties led by the Congress on Sunday demanded an investigation into a media report about a company owned by BJP chief Amit Shah’s son recording a huge jump in its turnover after the Modi government assumed power.

Shah’s son Jay and the BJP rubbished the report describing the news story as “false, derogatory and defamatory” and said would file a Rs 100 crore defamation case against the writer of the reporter as well as editor and owners of the web portal that published it.

While senior Congress leader told a press conference that it was a “case of crony capitalism”, party vice president Rahul Gandhi took a dig on Twitter, “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.”

Sibal quoted from the report and filings with the Registrar of Companies (RoC) to claim that Jay-owned Temple Enterprise’s turnover rose by 16,000 times during 2015-16 at around Rs 80 crore over the previous year. He also alleged that Kusum Finserve LLP in which Jay had 60% stake, also got a contract in Madhya Pradesh in wind power sector despite the company being engaged in stock trading.

CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury said these were “serious” allegations as the BJP leader’s son is accused of accumulating wealth in a “clandestine” manner. Trinamool Congress’ Derek O’Brien said, “BJP is ever so quick to use CBI/ED against other political parties. Why not now when it comes to one of their own, son of their party president?”. CPI’s D Raja demanded a “high level SIT probe monitored by the court”.

Defending himself, Jay said in a statement, “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.”