by admin | May 25, 2021 | Media, News, Politics
New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked Jay Shah, son of BJP President Amit Shah, and news portal “The Wire” to settle a defamation case filed by the former against the portal for carrying a story on the exponential increase in the turnover of his company after the BJP-led government came to power at the Centre in 2014.
The bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud asked the senior lawyers appearing for the news portal and Jay Shah to meet and try to resolve the issue.
“Can it be solved,” Justice Chandrachud asked senior counsel Nitya Ramakrishnan for The Wire and Neeraj Kishan Kaul for Jay Shah, with Chief Justice Misra suggesting “why not senior counsels meet and try to resolve (the issue)”.
“What kind of settlement we can have? We don’t want to have any settlement. We stand by our story. It was done in public interest,” said Ramakrishnan, with Kaul saying, “if the court says go for settlement, we are prepared for it”.
The Wire, its founding editor and journalist have moved the top court against the Gujarat High Court’s January 8 order, refusing to quash the summons issued against them by a trial court.
Journalist Rohini Singh’s article on the company of Jay Shah was carried by the news portal. The article claimed that Jay’s company’s turnover grew exponentially after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government came to power at the Centre in 2014.
The top court had asked the Gujarat trial court not to proceed with the criminal defamation complaint till April 12 filed by Jay Shah last year against the news portal and its journalists. The interim order was extended on Wednesday.
The High Court had on January 8 rejected the website’s plea for quashing the criminal defamation case filed by Jay Shah and said that based on initial impression, there was a case against the reporter and the editors.
“The article ‘The Golden Touch of Jay Amit Shah’ is per say defamatory and the trial court should proceed with the case,” the high court had ordered.
In October 2017, Jay Shah had filed a criminal defamation case in the trial court in Gujarat after the article appeared.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Media, News, Politics
Ahmedabad : The Ahmedabad Metropolitan Court on Tuesday issued summons to all the accused in a criminal defamation case filed by Jay Shah, son of BJP President Amit Shah, against news portal The Wire for publishing a story that the turnover of Jay Shah’s company jumped 16,000 times after the Modi government took office.
The summons to the reporter and editors of the online news portal were issued under Sections 500 and 114 of the Indian Penal Code as well as Section 202 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
According to S.V. Raju, advocate for Jay Shah, they contended in the court that there was a prima facie case of defamation and the article was published with the intent and knowledge to defame.
“There was an ulterior motive in publishing the article and the timing was deliberate to make it an issue for the (Gujarat) elections,” Raju told reporters.
He told the court that Jay Shah’s reply was not considered while publishing the article.
The Wire published an article on October 8 written by Rohini Singh which claimed that the revenues of Shah’s company had risen 16,000 times from Rs 50,000 to Rs 80 crore within a year after Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister in 2014.
He then filed a defamation case in the metrpolitan court on October 9 against Rohini Singh, the author of the story, Founding Editors Siddharth Vardarajan and M.K. Venu and owner of the online media outlet The Wire, Federation for Independent Journalists (FIJ).
Jay Shah and his lawyers, who were not present at the last hearing on October 11, attended the court on Tuesday to argue the case. Two witnesses, Jaimin Shah and Rajiv Shah, were also there.
After Jay Shah verified his complaint, Jaimin Shah submitted that he had received a weblink of the article from his friend and after going through it he felt it could harm the reputation of Jay Shah.
Rajiv Shah said he received the article link on his mobile phone and he found it defamatory for Jay Shah, whom he described as a “simple” person and a “man of repute” in the society.
The next hearing has been posted for November 13.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Media, News, Politics
New Delhi : The Congress, CPI-M and the AAP on Sunday sought an inquiry into allegations by a news website that the turnover of a company linked to Jay Shah, son of BJP chief Amit Shah, increased 16,000 times after the BJP came to power at the Centre in 2014.
The BJP rubbished the allegations and Jay Shah issued a statement saying the article carried by the website ‘The Wire’ had made “false, derogatory and defamatory imputations” against him.
Jay Shah said his businesses were fully legitimate and he had decided to “prosecute the author, editor and owner of the aforesaid news website for criminal defamation and sue them for an amount of Rs. 100 crore”.
He said the article creates an impression “that my business owes its success to my father Sri Amit Bhai Shah’s political position”.
Congress leader Kapil Sibal said at a press conference in the afternoon that information obtained from the Registrar of Companies had revealed that Temple Enterprises Pvt Ltd, a company in which Jay Shah was a Director and which had a turnover of just Rs 50,000 in 2014-15, suddenly saw a spike of 16,000 times in its turnover in a year.
Aam Aadmi Party leader Ashutosh also held a press conference and made similar allegations, saying the fortunes of Amit Shah’s son rose after the BJP came to power and he became the party chief. The AAP demanded a probe into the matter.
Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury said in a tweet: “Serious corruption charges against BJP President’s son need investigation. BJP Presidents eg Advani, Laxman had resigned on lesser charges.”
Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi also hit out at the Modi government. “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,” he said in a tweet.
Sibal said at the media briefing that Temple Enterprises had recorded losses in 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 of Rs 6,230 and Rs 1,724, respectively, but showed a profit of about Rs 18,000 in 2014-15. The following year (2015-16), its turnover jumped to a whopping Rs 80 crore, he said.
The change in fortunes of the company came after it received an unsecured loan of Rs 15.78 crore from KIFS Financial Services owned by a relative of a BJP Rajya Sabha member, Sibal claimed.
The Congress leader also alleged that Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency, a PSU under Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, had given a loan of Rs 10. 25 crore to Kusum Finserv, a limited liability partnership or LLP, in which Jay Shah had a 60 per cent stake, even though this company had no prior experience of operating in the power sector.
“We are only saying that pradhan sevak should probe because this is excellent example of crony capitalism.”
The BJP fielded Railway Minsiter Piyush Goyal to counter the allegations that he termed as “malicious and defamatory”.
“The article through malicious imputations is trying to damage the reputation of our leader Amit Shah ” he said.
He termed Congress’ allegations as “old Congress style”.
Clarifying about the dealings of Jay Shah’s companies, Goyal said Shah carries out “fully legitimate and lawful business”.
On the sudden spiking in Temple Enterprise’s turnover to Rs 80 crore, Goyal said that the firm was dealing in agri-commodities in which there is “high volume and high value but low profit margin”.
“So even if you do just a few transactions, the volume becomes very high. Rs 80 crore is not a large turnover in commodity business,” he said.
On loans taken from KIFS Financial Services owned by Rajesh Khandwala, Goyal said that normally banks do not extend loans to new and small companies and hence the loan was taken from registered NBFC KIFS on “commercial rates and commercial considerations” and has been repaid with interest.
He said that the Kalupur Commercial Cooperative Bank did not give a loan of Rs 25 crore to Kusum Finserve but gave only a Letter of Credit (LC) on security.
“In addition, 10 per cent cash margin was given and apart from that property of Amit Shah and office premises of Kusum Finserve were also mortgaged for this LC facility,” Goyal said.
On the loan given by IREDA, he said it is engaged in commercial lending to promote renewable energy in the country” and has “already given more than 2,000 loans and sanctioned over Rs 50,000 crore.”
“This is malicious and deplorable effort to try and attribute motives. We thoroughly reject all these baseless allegations.”
Jay Shah in his statement said that the “highly slanted” article had damaged his reputation and law suits will be filed at Ahmedabad, where he stayed.
“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. I had taken loans either from NBFC or Non Funded Credit Finance Facilities from Cooperative Banks on purely commercial terms strictly in accordance with the law.”
Sibal later countered Goyal and asked if it was right for him as a minister to defend Jay Shah.
“Why is Piyush Goyal, being a minister, defending Shah? He can defend the government. Does he (Goyal) keep talking to Jay Shah. Is there so much closeness?”
He also countered Goyal over his charges on the Dhingra commission report that probed land deals of Congress presdent Sonia Gandhis’s son-in-law and said it was BJP-ruled Haryana Government which did not want to put the report in the public domain.
Sibal said the party had not said anything malicious and was only seeking information on Jay Shah’s deals.
He also said that details should be given of goods and equipment “hypothecated against the loan”.
—IANS
