Row over Amit Shah's son: Rs 100-cr defamation suit and 10 developments

The Congress, CPI(M), and the AAP have sought an inquiry into allegations against Jay Shah

 

A political storm hit the Narendra Modi-led government and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after a news website reported that a company run by party chief Amit Shah's son, Jay Amit Shah, recorded a 16,000-times increase in turnover in only a year after Modi became the Prime Minister and the senior Shah the party president. In a statement that the BJP released on Sunday evening, Jay said he would be filing civil and criminal defamation cases against the news website's owners, editor, and the author of the article in Ahmedabad, where he runs his business, and sue them for Rs 100 crore in damages.

 

The Congress, CPI-M, and the AAP on Sunday sought an inquiry into allegations against Jay Shah and a company linked to him. (Read all about the political storm kicked up by the report on Amit Shah's son.

 

Responding to the article, 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. (Read more about how BJP responded to the article)

These developments came over a report, written by Rohini Singh in The Wire, detailing the growth of Jay Shah's company, Temple Enterprise Private Ltd, from revenues of Rs 50,000 in 2014-15 to Rs 80.5 crore in 2015-16.

 

The controversy comes at a politically significant moment with election to the Gujarat Assembly barely 60 days away, and the winter session of Parliament scheduled to start in the first half of November.

 

Here are the top 10 developments

 

 

1) Shah Jr accuses website, author of defamation: Jay Shah on Sunday refuted the story alleging that his private business rose to an astronomical level after the BJP came to power at the Centre and called it "false and derogatory". In a press statement issued hours after the website, The Wire, released the story, Jay Shah said: "The article makes false, derogatory and defamatory imputation against me by creating in the minds of right-thinking people an impression that my business owes its 'success' to my father Shri Amitbhai Shah's political position."

 

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