Vasundhra Raje Defense of Sons Deal With Lalit Modi Found Acceptable: BJP Sources

New Delhi:  The BJP’s top bosses have reportedly accepted the defense offered by Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje to counter strong allegations that her son Dushyant Singh’s business dealings with tainted cricket tycoon Lalit Modi signal financial corruption.

Earlier this week, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the controversial 13-crore deal between Mr Modi and Ms Raje’s son, 41-year-old MP Dushyant Singh, is being thoroughly examined and “the government will play by the rule book.”

Sources say that while the government would maintain that view officially, privately it had to examine documents pertaining to the business dealings to see if they are “politically defensible”.  The party has reportedly decided they are.

Sources who have examined the documents  argue that a loan of nearly three crores from Mr Modi to Mr Singh, offered in 2007, was repaid via cheque in 2009 and hence is a “non-issue”. On why Mr Modi valued Rs 10 shares in Mr Singh’s firm at nearly a lakh each,  BJP sources argue that the real estate value of the Raje’s family’s assets, including its ancestral palace, is worth more than 300 crores. Therefore, they claim, Mr Modi did not pay an undue huge premium for equity in a firm that was not making profits.

 

However, in income tax returns for the year 2013, Ms Raje’s son said the family palace was worth Rs 16 crore and it was listed in the name of one of his dependents, and not as an asset of his firm.

Asked to justify whether “slush funds” of a Mauritius-based company of Mr Modi had financed Mr Singh’s business, BJP sources said that the funds of Mr Modi’s firms are being probed and if money-laundering is proven, it’s the cricket entrepreneur who will be liable.