One of the leading urban cooperative banks of Gujarat, Kalupur Commercial Cooperative Bank hogged the media headlines throughout Sunday as TV channels played the story done by the news portal The Wire insinuating the rise of Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah coinciding with the rise of Narendra Modi since 2014.
Indian Cooperative’s efforts to contact the Chairman of the Kalupur Commercial Cooperative Bank could not succeed as one of the Advisors of the UCB whom we could talk to late evening on Sunday said” Chairman-Emeritus Ambubhai Maganbhai Patel is in USA right now”.
Himmat Shah Patel who has been associated with the Ambubhai Patel for a long time and who is working as Advisor even now in the Kalupur Commercial Co-op Bank said” I cannot tell you anything offhand but I assure you of coming back with all the details very soon”.
The news portal The Wire, earlier said that Kusum Finserve in which Jay Shah, son of Amit Shah has about 60% share sought a loan of Rs 25 crore from KaluPur Commercial Co-op Bank by pledging assets worth Rs 7 crore.
“The news-item fails to prove the evidence of any wrong-doings; its sole argument draws strength from the fact that the company grew 16000 times in a short period. But so have been the case with many companies in the corporate world”, argue BJP sympathizers.
Jay Shah’s lawyer said the bank did not give the firm a “loan” but a “non fund based working
“This facility has been secured on usual banking terms which include hypothecation of the goods purchased under the LC, cash margin of 10% and collateral security of a property belonging to Jay Shah’s father and another property of Kusum Finserve which is duly reflected in the financial statement of April, 2014 to March, 2015,” says the statement from the lawyer.
“The bank receives payments before the retirement of LC on its due date resulting in this being a non-funded and no-risk facility for the bank,” Shah’s lawyer said.
Later Piyush Goyal also came in the defense of Jay Shah and said the companies are legitimate and acquired loans transparently and paid commercial rates of interest for them.
Jay Shah has said he will sue news portal The Wire for Rs. 100 crore. The news portal is being edited by Sidharth Vardhrajan.