Above: Dattatreya Hosbole speaking in an RSS event

Dattatreya Hosbole is not against any investigation, but he says that the guilt has to be established first

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), now feels that the allegations against BJP president Amit Shah’s son, Jay Amit Shah and the unnatural growth of his company Temple Enterprise Private Ltd. could be investigated if there is enough evidence of wrongdoing.

Online news portal The Wire had published a report about business dealings of Shah Jr and the firm. The allegation in the article is of the firm’s turnover growing from Rs 50,000 in March 2015 to Rs 80.5 crore in 2015-16. It also talks about an unsecured loan of Rs 15.78 crore from financial services firm KIFS.

In Bhopal, where the three-day meeting of the all-India executive board of RSS started on Thursday (October 12) the Sangh’s coordinator Dattatreya Hosbale, while reacting to a question from the media on the allegations, did not reactively hit out against the portal. Instead he gave out a well-thought out answer that said that allegations have to be evidenced to make them worthy of investigation.

He said: “If there are corruption allegations against anyone, they should be investigated. But there has to be prima facie evidence of wrong-doing.”

He, of course put the onus of proving the guilt on the accuser, saying “It is for those who have made the accusation to prove the charge.”

The RSS also said that this was a proper loan with records of been paid back as well.

–India Legal Bureau