Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today accused the Congress of levelling "mala fide and defamatory" allegations against BJP president Amit Shah's son over claims in a media report that a firm owned by him saw a huge rise in turnover after the BJP came to power in 2014.
"The Congress party is desperate. Mala fide and defamatory allegations have been levelled against the son of the BJP president. Even that website has never said there is any illegality," he told a press meet here.
The law minister claimed that the news website -- The Wire -- which published the story on Shah's son Jay Amit Shah's business dealings, arrived at a wrong conclusion on the basis of evidence and reasoning.
"Factually not wrong, inferences are wrong. They (the news website) have sought to paint that he (Jay Amit Shah) got benefits from the government," he said when asked why legal action had been initiated against the website if they did no wrong.
Prasad justified the law ministry's decision to grant permission to Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to give legal advice to Jay Shah in the case.
"It is a private dispute, in which the Government of India is not a party," he said, while responding to a query.
The BJP leader also hit out at Rahul Gandhi, a day after the Congress vice-president took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, pressing the latter to "say something" on the claims in the report published by the website.
"I am amazed to see Rahul Gandhi's comment. Do not forget that Rahul is on bail in the National Herald forgery and cheating case," he said.
Prasad also said that the Congress vice-president had never uttered a word about his brother-in-law, Robert Vadra's business transactions.
Meanwhile, a group of Congress workers burned an effigy of Amit Shah at Kollam and demanded a probe into the business dealings of his son.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)