The BJP on Sunday said that Jay Shah, the son of its national president, Amit Shah, will file a ‘criminal defamation suit of Rs. 100 crore against author (of article), editor & owner of The Wire.’
The website had carried a stunning expose claiming that Jay Shah’s company’s turnover had increased by 16,000 times since Narendra Modi became India’s prime minister in May 2014.
In an explosive piece, The Wire website had written that the balance sheets and annual reports obtained from the RoC had revealed 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.
However, a year after its worth increased by 16,000 times, Temple Enterprise Private Ltd reportedly wound up its operations by stopping 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.
Speaking to media, Union Railways Minister Piyush Goyal said, “We reject any allegation sought to be made against Shri Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah. We believe in legitimate and honest transactions. We don’t take umbrage in falsehood as the Congress is known to do. All loans were in accordance with law & were paid back with full interest.”
Goyal’s reaction came after Congress leader and former HRD Minister Kapil Sibal addressed a news conference earlier in the day demanding answers from Modi while asking him to instruct ED and CBI to probe the matter.