NEW DELHI: BJP chief Amit Shah’s son Jay Monday filed a defamation case against a news portal over a report claiming his firm’s turnover grew manifold after the party came to power. The row set off by the article escalated with the Congress demanding the BJP chief’s ouster.In his application, Jay prayed for, “Criminal action against the respondents for defaming and tarnishing the reputation of the complainant through an article, which is scandalous, frivolous, misleading, derogatory, libelous and consisting of several defamatory statements.”
However, the BJP rejected the contention of impropriety that additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta would be arguing the criminal defamation case on behalf of Jay Shah against the web portal. In a news report, the portal claimed that Jai Amitbhai Shah’s firm reported 16,000 times more turnover in a year before winding up operations.Union minister Piyush Goyal stated that a law officer could argue a case of a private person after taking permission from the government.
Goyal said Mehta had been given permission by minister for law and justice Ravi Shankar Prasad to argue the defamation case, which is being filed in Ahmedabad against the author of the news report and three other persons of the web portal.The BJP also rejected the purported comparison with the alleged windfall gains of Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi. “In the case of Jay Amit Shah, he took legitimate and legal loans to undertake a business activity in contrast to Vadra who got loan from an entity and bought land from the same while getting the government to change the land use and subsequently sell the real-asset to the same business house,” said a Union minister, speaking off the record.
Congress targets Amit Shah
Congress strategists, miffed with the BJP targeting Robert Vadra, felt it was to time to pay the saffron party back in the same coin. Party vice-president Rahul Gandhi urged PM Modi to clarify the issue, while campaigning in Gujarat. Hours later, Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma demanded that the PM set up an independent probe into the allegations and remove the BJP chief till the process was complete.