Journalist Rohini Singh, who is facing 100 crore defamation suit in light of her investigative piece on the business dealings of BJP president Amit Shah’s son Jai Shah, took to Facebook saying ‘Intimidation and harassment’ are tools often used by those in power and she would rather quit journalism rather than do the sort of reportage that is happening around nowadays.
On Sunday, Online news portal The Wire published a piece on Shah Junior alluding to irregularities by a company owned by him. Citing filings with the Registrar of Companies, the report said that the turnover of Temple Enterprise Private Ltd, a company where Jay Shah was a director, allegedly rose 16,000 times that of previous year. According to the report, it rose from Rs 15,000 in 2014-15 to Rs 80.5 crore in 2015-16. Subsequently, Jay Shah slapped a Rs 100 crore defamation suit on the website.
Union Minister Piyush Goyal came in defense of Shah’s son terming the allegations as “derogatory, defamatory, hallowed and baseless”.
Saying that there is “absolutely no substance whatsoever” in the story reported by The Wire, Goyal claimed the online news portal was trying to damage the reputation of Amit Shah.
“Mr Jay Shah, son of Amit shah, has decided to file criminal defamation suit against the author, editors and the ownrs of The Wire. They shall be prosecuted for criminal defamation and sued for an amount of Rs 100 crore in the Ahmedabad court,” he said.
