The beneficiary of Mr Modi’s investment of nearly Rs 13 crores in 2009 was Dushyant Singh, the son of top BJP leader and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje. The BJP has dismissed talk of a sweetheart deal pivoted around Mrs Raje’s political clout. Party spokespersons have defended the Chief Minister and her son, describing the transaction as one that was declared and duly taxed.
But NDTV has accessed documents that add to the signs of a deal replete with gray areas.
The BJP has claimed that Mr Modi chose to pay Rs 96,000 for a Rs 10 share because the company he was buying into owned valuable property including the Dholpur palace (Mrs Raje’s son is the titular king of the town). However, Mr Singh’s income tax returns filed last year list the palace’s owner as his “third dependent” -his young son. So when Mr Modi bought stake in his firm, it did not own the heritage building that is valued at nearly Rs 16 crores.
The BJP and Mr Singh, who is a parliamentarian, have said the transactions with Mr Modi were taxed. In addition to equity worth Rs 10 crores, he provided a loan worth Rs 3 crores to Mr Singh’s firm. But income tax documents filed by Mr Singh show that the interest on the loan and the taxes on Mr Modi’s investment added up to Rs 55 lakhs – just 4 per cent of the total money received from the cricket boss, who is wanted in India in a wide range of corruption cases linked to his term as boss of the Indian Premier League.
The BJP’s Ashok Parnami has also said that Mr Singh’s firm was a legitimate company with credible economic activity, making it a worthy investment for Mr Modi. However, when Mr Modi pumped money into the company, it declared a loss of Rs 38 lakhs.
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