Rasheeduddin Khaja | India Tomorrow

NEW DELHI, JULY 17—BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra, along with his two associates, a RSS functionary and a jeweller, has been found involved in an alleged financial scam involving Rs 61.52 lakh.

Nishant Verma, a political analyst, who has been keenly observing the functioning of the incumbent BJP government at the Centre, brought the scam to public domain.

Verma rates Patra “the most incompetent politician” in the country whose only claim to fame lies in the cult he has woven around the personality of Narendra Modi during his stint as a national spokesperson of the ruling party. His company, he says came into public domain at the time of demonetisation of high-value currency notes of Rs 500 and 1,000 denominations.

Sambit Patra's demonetization scam:

In 2010, Sambit Patra set up a company called Centre For Holistic Advancement And Upliftment Of Poor & Landless (CHAUPAL).

In 2016, when demonetization happened, Patra's company had 61+ lakhs lying IN CASH in 500 & 1000 rupee notes

Thread 👇

— Saket Gokhale (@SaketGokhale) July 15, 2020

In 2010, Patra, along with two of his associates, had floated a company called Holistic Advancement and Upliftment of Poor and Landless (CHAUPAL).

Nishant Verma credits Saket Gokhale, journalist from Thane, Maharashtra, for digging the accurate data on the scam. Gokhale painstakingly gathered all the information related to the scam to nail the politician along with his associates. 

In a tweet captioned Sambit Patra's demonetization scam, he wrote, “In 2010, Sambit Patra set up a company called Centre For Holistic Advancement And Upliftment Of Poor & Landless (CHAUPAL).

In 2016, when demonetization happened, Patra's company had 61+ lakhs lying IN CASH in 500 & 1000 rupee notes.

Here is what Nishant Verma says about Patra's alleged financial scam.

In 2016, during the demonetisation process, the company possessed over Rs 61.52 lakh in cash which was deposited in banks all in Rs 500 and 1,000 denominations. “You might ask what a big deal, I and you too did the same. But it’s not as simple,” says Verma.

The company neither specifically mentioned from where it borrowed the money nor did it disclose where it invested the money. How then it could be able to accumulate as much cash in just two months? All the underhand deals of the company would have come out if only the government was sincere enough to dig out the truth. Herein lies the catch.

“Sambit Patra has also not declared his shareholding in this company in his 2019 Lok Sabha affidavit from Puri. Why did he hide this in his affidavit?”, Saket Gokhale has questioned in one of his tweets.

The question arises what the company was really doing to earn the moolah? Were they collecting money from people to deposit in their own account? Is it not the responsibility of the government to investigate into the matter? If not, what about its tall claims of relentless crusade against graft? How is it that neither the Income Tax Department nor the CBI, not even the banks, raised the issue of propriety in the functioning of the company? In fact, the Reserve Bank of India had directed all the banks to furnish information to it about accounts where customers had deposited Rs. 2.5 lakh or more in cash after demonetisation. The directions were issued to ensure that the banking system is not misused to launder black money after demonetisation drive launched on November 8, 2016.

The company with acronym, Chaupal, is duly registered under the Companies Act by shares category and sub category of ‘Indian NGO’ with Sambit Patra as its first partner.  The two other partners of the company are Balram Garg and Bhola Nath Vij. While Balram Garg is managing director of PC Jewellers Ltd, a jeweller based in Delhi, Bhola Nath Vij is associated with RSS’ Swadeshi Jagran Manch.

While the company is supposed to give loans to the poor under microfinance category, its sources of finance are unknown. Its earning is the interest it would get through the transactions: borrow money and lend it to the needy on interest. What is intriguing is that it is neither a Non Banking Finance Corporation (NBFC) nor does it come under Section 8 of the Companies Act to carry on with these financial deals. How then such an illegal company was allowed to carry on with its business is a question mark on the government’s credentials as an honest arbiter.

Association of Bhola Nath Vij, an RSS functionary, with the company points to its link with Hindutva outfit. While the fact that the company was operating from RK Puram-based Bharatiya Marketing Development which is controlled by the RSS 2010 onwards, its office was shifted to the Sangh’s Swadeshi Jagran Foundation at Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg at the instance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, reinforces its direct link with the government.

These revelations are enough to expose ugly truth of the demure-looking Sambit Patra who keeps harping on Modi’s crusade against corruption on TV studios. What’s more, they burst the myth of BJP’s crusade against corruption.

Phone calls and text messages to Sambit Patra through SMS and Whatsapp went unreplied.