By Akhileshwari Anand Raj
On the 8th of October, Indian web publisher, The Wire, published a piece which showed an unprecedented 16,000 times growth of a company, Temple Enterprise, which was co-owned by BJP national president Amit Shahs son, Jay Shah. This growth occurred only after Narendra Modi had become the prime minister of India. The piece, entitled The Golden Touch of Jay Amitbhai Shah, was written by former Economic Times journalist, Rohini Singh. In it, it was alleged that the revenue of the company had jumped from Rs. 50000 to over Rs 80.5 crore, over one financial year.
The scandal
The original article is allegedly based on the company balance sheets and annual reports for the years ending March 2015 and 2016. These were obtained from the Registrar of Companies. In 2015, it had a turnover of Rs. 50,000, with only Rs. 18,000 as revenue, and in 2016, it recorded a turnover Rs. 80.5 crore. Further, Jay Shahs company received an unsecured loan to the tune of Rs. 15.78 crore from a non-banking financial company, KIFS Financial Services. This company is owned by Rajesh Khandwala, the son-in-law of Parimal Nathwani, a Rajya Sabha MP from Jharkhand. Incidentally, he also happens to be a senior functionary of Reliance Industries Gujarat operations.
Temple Enterprise, which dealt with the import and export of agricultural commodities like rapeseed, castor oil, soya bean, rice, maize, etc. was wound up in 2016, despite the Rs. 80.5 crore turnover. Meanwhile, another company with Jay Shah owning a majority stake in it, Kusum Finserve, obtained a loan of Rs. 25 crores from the Kalupur Commercial Cooperative Bank. This was also allegedly found in the stock trading companys filings with the Registrar of Companies. This company received a letter of credit worth Rs. 10.35 crore from the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA), a mini-Ratna, for setting up a 2.1 MW wind energy plant, worth Rs. 15 crore in Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh.
Jays future course of action
Jay Shah followed through with his earlier statement by filing a Rs. 100 crore defamation suit against The Wires editor and the writer of the article, Rohini Singh.
A day after this article, Jay Shah released a statement denying any wrongdoing on his part. He said that the article was derogatory and defamatory in nature, creating a false impression of him in the minds of right-thinking people. He also claimed that his business owes its success to his fathers political position. He held his ground, stating that his businesses are fully legitimate and are conducted in a lawful manner, as reflected in his tax records.
Political reactions
The BJP supported Shah, stating that there were no irregularities in his business. Railway minister Piyush Goyal said that Khandwala had been Shah’s stockbroker for almost a decade and the loans were from a finance company, a legitimate source, which was disclosed accordingly. He stated that there was absolutely no substance in the article and that the BJP rejects all the allegations against Shah.
Congress and AAP leaders called for a full-fledged inquiry, with Congress leader Kapil Sibal stating that the fortunes of some people seem to have changed after the change of power. He put a question to the Prime Minister, asking him what his view on crony capitalism was now. He also questioned the further course of action. He asked whether a CBI probe will be ordered, or whether the ED will be asked to arrest these people because this is what happens in the case of the opposition.
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