Breaking his silence on the business dealings of his son, Jay Shah, BJP president Amit Shah on Friday said his company had not received any contract or land from the government and there was no corruption in its businesses.
Mr. Shah said that by filing a defamation suit, his son had voluntarily sought an inquiry into the allegations. “The court will now decide on the matter. Jay has moved the court,” he said at a programme organised by a news channel here.
“As far as the company is concerned, it has not done business worth a rupee with the government. It has not got government land worth a rupee, it has not got any government contract worth even a rupee,” Mr. Shah said.
A news website had reported that the turnover of Jay Shah’s company had risen spectacularly after the BJP came to power in 2014.
Mr. Shah said the company traded in agricultural commodities such as rice and millets. “They are saying the company’s turnover rose to ₹80 crore from a mere ₹50,000, but they are not showing that it incurred a loss of ₹1.5 crore. This is a high-volume, low-profit business. Where is money laundering in it,” he asked.
How could the company get a loan of ₹25 crore from a cooperative bank, Mr. Shah was asked. It was a letter of credit and not a loan, he said. “Every penny borrowed from the bank was repaid with interest.”
He also defended the ₹100-crore defamation suit filed by his son in a metropolitan court in Ahmedabad.
The suit was not filed by the BJP but by Mr. Jay in his individual capacity.
Swipe at Congress
Slamming the Congress leaders for demanding an inquiry into Mr. Jay’s business dealings, Mr. Shah wondered why no Congress leader had ever filed a defamation suit when corruption allegations were levelled against them.
“Have they ever filed a criminal defamation or a ₹100-crore civil defamation suit? Why could they not gather the courage to file such a suit?” he asked.
“The company has not taken commission as in the case of Bofors,” Mr. Shah said, referring to the payoffs scandal allegedly involving the Nehru Gandhi family.