How business partners of Guj CM Anandiben’s daughter landed a good deal

February 5, 2016

New Delhi, Feb 5: Business associates of Anar Jayesh Patel, 45, daughter of Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel, own a company that's sitting on 400 acres of land near the Gir lion sanctuary in the state —and 250 acres of that land was given to that company at an official rate of Rs 15 per square metre.

anandibenAnar Patel describes herself as a social worker and an entrepreneur. Filings with the Registrar of Companies (RoC), accessed by ET, show a number of transactions between her and her business partners that started when the Gujarat government allotted 250 acres of public land in 2010-11 to Wildwoods Resorts and Realties.

Wildwoods' current promoters, Dakshesh Shah and Amol Shripal Sheth, are business partners of Anar Patel. ET sent questions to all involved, the CM, her daughter, Anar's business partners and Gujarat revenue secretary. There was no response from the Gujarat government.

Anar Patel, Shah and Sheth responded to ET and insisted all transactions were above board. ET also spoke to Sanjay Dhanak, the original promoter of Wildwoods. The land is in Gujarat's Amreli district, next to the lion sanctuary at Gir, and therefore an attractive commercial proposition.

Wildwoods also received government nod to purchase a further 172 acres of agricultural land, as well as approval to change land use from agricultural to non-agricultural.


Anandiben Patel was the Gujarat revenue minister at that time. The revenue department is the nodal authority for such land allotments.

Anandiben retains the revenue portfolio as chief minister. Her office did not respond to ET's questions. Her office and that of the state revenue secretary did not respond to the question whether allotting such large land parcels to for-profit private enterprises was common official policy, especially when beneficiaries did not have a track record of setting up largescale facilities.

The original promoter of Wildwoods said plans to build a tourist resort on that land didn't work out. Current promoters insisted there were no proscriptions against building resorts in the area and that all regulatory clearances were obtained. No resort has been built so far.

WILDWOODS 1.0 & WILDWOODS 2.0

Wildwoods is owned by Parshva Texchem and Anil Infraplus Ltd. When the land allotment orders were issued in 2010, Wildwoods was owned by Dubai-based businessman Sanjay Dhanak. Shah and Sheth took control of the company in 2011-12.

Dhanak told ET that Wildwoods had applied for the land and had planned to build a tourist resort. Parshva and Anil Infraplus are co-investors in firms where Anar Patel has a substantial stake. ET's review of documents filed with the Registrar of Companies shows a host of transactions between companies that received the government's land allotment as well as other companies run by Shah and Sheth and companies where Anar Patel has significant equity presence.

Dhanak told ET he could not remember how much was paid for the 422 acres of land. Dakshesh Shah, too, did not elaborate on the issue. He also told ET he was not aware how much Wildwoods had paid for the 422 acres since he bought into the firm in 2011 and was "not aware of previous transactions".

Dhanak, however, told ET that Shah was his partner at the time of allotment and that "he has all the books that detail all the transactions including how much was paid to change land use".


Dhanak told ET that after the allotment he changed his mind about setting up a tourist resort and wanted to cash out. "Jama nahi(My plans did not work out). Shah did not want me to sell my stake in the market and insisted I transfer it to him," he said. Dhanak said he has never been in the business of setting up resorts and only has a jewellery business in Dubai.

In an emailed response to ET, Dakshesh Shah said Wildwoods promoters weren't aware of any official advisory against building resorts in that area. He also said: "The original promoter had acquired all permissions from the respective regulatory bodies relating to land development. After acquisition of stake, no further permissions/relaxations have been given."

Shah also said he was not aware how much Wildwoods had originally paid the government for the land or the amount spent as land conversion charges. A spokesperson for Amol Sheth also did not disclose the amount Wildwoods paid. Neither did he disclose how much current promoters paid to the original promoter of Wildwoods.

MANY TRANSACTIONS

Dakshesh Shah is Anar Patel's business partner with a 50% stake in Patel's company, Anar Project. Besides, Shah's firm Parshva Texchem, which co-owns Wildwoods, is also a substantial shareholder in Anar Patel's Relish Pharmaceuticals. Shah and Anar Patel are also directors in Anar Project, Relish Pharma and 24x7 Fitness.


"Mr Dakshesh R Shah is one of my business partners. Mr Shah and me are joint promoters in Relish Pharma and he has invested in Relish Pharma from Parshva Texchem & Ms Renuka is investor in Relish Pharma," Anar Patel said in an email response to ET.

Shah told ET that Anar Patel is his business partner. He did not elaborate on the details of their dealings. "I am a businessman and I do invest in prospective projects when I find the opportunity," he said. Shah also said Wildwoods has had no financial dealings with any firm associated with Anar Patel. However, RoC filings tell a different story:

1. Anar Project filings show a "payable" of Rs 10 lakh to Wildwoods.

2. Innovative Infraplus, majority owned by Shah, advanced a Rs 2.95-crore loan to Anar Project and Rs 20 lakh to Anar Patel herself.

3. Innovative Infraplus, where Anar Project has a substantial stake, received an "advance" of Rs 8.73 crore from Amol Sheth's Anil Ltd as well as Rs 11.015 crore from Anil Mega Food Park.

4. Innovative also lists Anil Infraplus and Anil Technoplus among its creditors to whom it owes Rs 2.6 crore and Rs 15 crore, respectively.

5. Anar Project had advanced Rs 9 crore to Anil Technoplus. Sheth says the money was an "advance" against "material supplied subsequently".


6. Innovative has also loaned money to 24x7 Fitness and Aahna Solar, firms in which Anar Patel is a substantial investor.

7. Proper Dealcom, in which Shah's firm Parshva has a stake, had loaned Rs 9 crore to Relish Pharma in 2011-12.

8.Parshva Texchem also loaned Rs 2.30 lakh to Gramshree-Women Empowerment, a Section 25 company promoted by Gujarat CM Anandiben Patel and Anar Patel.

9. Innovative has also given a Rs 15-lakh advance to Gramshree, which it lists as a creditor. Amol Sheth did not comment on his business dealings with Anar Patel.

According to filings made with RoC, Sheth and Anar were directors briefly in Aahna Solar. The shareholding pattern of Aahna shows Patel, Shah and Anil Infraplus, which co-owns Wildwoods, are equal partners. In its filings, Aahna Solar states its only business is solar power generation. However, its balance sheets show that its revenues are from a restaurant and food business.

Comments

THINKERS
 - 
Saturday, 6 Feb 2016

Indian land for sale - less than HALF PRICE only....
Eligible candidate :
1. Should be close associates of PM.
2. Cheddi VIP membership only
3. Cheddi lower caste members not eligible.
Good deal to destroy the POOR of the country.... & follow the deceptive ways of life taught by their evil zionist.

TR
 - 
Saturday, 6 Feb 2016

True colors are showing. Mr. PM it is Happned right under your CM period, one by one will come out.

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
February 21,2020

Pune/Mumbai, Feb 21: A BJP youth wing leader from Pune on Thursday submitted a complaint application to the police against AIMIM leader Waris Pathan for his controversial remarks made recently in Karnataka.

Pathan has claimed he has been quoted out of context.

Parismal Deshpande, a BJYM worker, submitted the written application at the Deccan Gymkhana police station, demading action against Pathan for allegedly promoting enmity between different groups and outraging religious feelings of a community.

Deshpande, in his complaint stated, that Pathan reportedly said "15 crore hai lekin 100 crore pe bhari hai' (We are 15 crore but we can dominate 100 crore).

"The statement by Pathan promotes violence and create a divide between two communities.

"Because of such statements, there are possibilities of atmosphere getting vitiated. Hence, he should be booked under IPC sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups, 295A (outraging religious feelings), and 504 (provoking breach of the peace)," Deshpande said in the complaint.

An officer from the Deccan police station confirmed receiving the application.

Meanwhile, in Mumbai, the BJP slammed Pathan.

The saffron party on Thursday tweeted @BJP4Maharashtra saying, "Waris Pathan, who are you threatening to? Shiv Sena led government may tolerate your comments; but BJP and people of Maharashtra will teach you a lesson that your hate- mongering speeches will be shut."

However, Pathan has issued a statement to the media, saying he has been quoted out of context.

"I hereby wish to state that the media reports on TV channels showing my statement made in the public meeting at Gulbarga five days back have totally quoted me out of context," Pathan claimed on late Thursday evening.

"I wish to reiterate that I can never say anything intentionally or unintentionally that hurts the sentiments of any caste, community or gender. I am a proud Indian and respects the plurality of this country," he said.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Agencies
January 11,2020

New Delhi, Jan 11: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Friday said that he has never seen innocents like the Indian people, who believe the claims made by the government on the implementation of its programmes. The former Union Minister, addressing a literary event, said, "I have never seen innocents like the Indian people. If something appears on print (and named two newspapers also), we believe it. We believe anything."

Claims like all villages having been electrified in the country and toilets built for 99 per cent of families in India were being believed, he said.

Similar was the case of the Ayushman Bharat scheme, (Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana or PM-JAY is a flagship health care scheme of the Centre), he alleged.

Stating that his Delhi-based driver's father had to get a surgery done under the scheme, he said, however, it could not be performed.

"I asked him (car driver) if he had the Ayushman card and he showed a card and I told him to take it (to hospital). In hospital after hospital, they said they were not aware of anything like that (Ayushman scheme). But we believe that the Ayushman scheme has come to the whole of India," he said.

Further, he said "we believe that for any disease, treatment will be done (indicating the Ayushman scheme) without shelling out money. We are being innocents."

Many news items and data were contrary to the truth, he added.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
February 28,2020

Patna, Feb 28: Social and cultural activists from far and wide converged here on Thursday to lend their support to a massive rally that marked the conclusion of Kanhaiya Kumar's 'Jan Gan Man Yatra' across Bihar to galvanise public opinion against CAA-NPR-NRC.

Medha Patkar of the Narmada Bachao Andolan fame, Mahatma Gandhi's grandson Tushar Gandhi and former IAS officer Kannan Gopinathan, who gave up his career at a young age in protest against abrogation of Article 370, shared the stage with the former JNU students' leader.

Shabnam Hashmi -- founder of socio-cultural organisation ANHAD and sister of slain Marxist playwright and director Safdar Hashmi -- also joined them.

Congress MLA Shakil Ahmed Khan, a former president of JNU students' union himself who accompanied Kanhaiya during his tour that commenced at Champaran on January 30, Mahatma Gandhi's death anniversary, and leaders of state units of CPI and CPI(M) also addressed the rally held at Gandhi Maidan.

Kanhaiya began his speech with a one-minute silence held in the memory of those who lost their lives in Delhi violence.

Defending his frequent use of the term "azadi" (freedom) which supporters of the Sangh Parivar hold to be tantamount to supporting secession, Kanhaiya said, "We must talk about the virtues of azadi here since today happens to be the day when legendary revolutionary Chandrashekhar Azad had given up his life fighting the British."

Charging the ruling BJP with pitting Hindus against Muslims, he said, "Let us resolve to defeat their agenda by emulating the fabled friendship of Ram Prasad Bismil and Ashfaqullah Khan."

The young CPI leader, who made an unsuccessful debut from his native Begusarai Lok Sabha constituency last year, seemed unimpressed with the resolution passed by the Bihar Assembly earlier this week against NRC and inclusion of contentious clauses in NPR forms.

"Both the government and the opposition are busy congratulating themselves. I extend my congratulations as well. But to all those who are present here, I would say it is a half-victory. We must not allow our movement to fizzle out and draw inspiration from Gandhi's model of civil disobedience when the NPR exercise gets underway," he said.

"Villagers should ask their respective panchayat heads to ensure that no NPR official is allowed to come knocking in their areas of jurisdiction when NPR is scheduled to be undertaken in May," the CPI leader said.

"We have to brace for a long and tough fight. We are living under a regime which sends conscientious professionals like Dr Kafeel Ahmed behind the bars and declares anybody questioning its actions as an anti-national," said Kanhaiya, who has himself been slapped with a sedition case.

Earlier, in his address, Tushar Gandhi likened CAA, NPR and NRC to the "three bullets that killed the Mahatma" and asserted that these measures would "harm the poor, belonging to all religious communities and not just the Muslims".

"If the government does not care about the poor, we must tell those in power -- 'chale jaao' (go away) just as we had done to the British colonisers... it is going to be a long fight. Independence was achieved five years after the call for Quit India Movement," he said.

"We need to keep repeating the importance of non-violence over and over again while those with other value systems simply have to utter inciting statements," he said, in an oblique reference to the controversial poll campaign of Union minister and BJP leader Anurag Thakur during the recently-held Delhi Assembly elections, which the party lost.

Kannan Gopinathan said, "The claim that CAA is all about granting citizenship and not taking it away is bunkum. Any law which seeks to favour one section of the society on the basis of religion can be tweaked to harm another social segment... people say this government is Fascist. I am not sure of that but it is certainly stupid."

"This government brought in demonetisation and wrecked the economy but failed to achieve its promise of eradicating black money. It abrogated Article 370 and now it is clueless as to what to do with the situation in Kashmir," he said.

"Union minister Amit Shah had declared in Parliament that NRC will be implemented. Faced with public resistance, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had to say he does not know what NRC is. Keep up the stir for a little longer, he will start saying he does not know Amit Shah," said Kannan, evoking peals of laughter.

In the course of his speech, Kanhaiya also made the crowds sing after him the National Anthem but skipped a few words towards the end. Participants at the rally were viciously trolled on social media for the slip-up.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.