Opposition parties have sought a probe into claims in a media report that a company owned by BJP chief Amit Shah's son saw a huge rise in its turnover after his party came to power in 2014.
The charge was rejected by the BJP and Shah's son, Jay Shah, who termed the story "false, derogatory and defamatory".
Training their guns at the Narendra Modi government by citing the news story's content, the Congress, the Left and the AAP demanded an investigation, with Congress leader Kapil Sibal alleging that it was a case of "crony capitalism".
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said in a tweet: "We finally found the only beneficiary of Demonetisation. It's not the RBI, the poor or the farmers. It's the Shah-in-Shah of Demo. Jai Amit (sic)."
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CPI(M)'s Sitaram Yechury claimed that it was the latest in a series of cases of corruption under the Modi government.
"Today, we ask a question to the prime minister, the pradhan sevak.... Now, what do you have to say about crony capitalism? Will you give direction to the CBI to probe the matter? Will you ask the ED to arrest these people," Sibal asked at a press conference in New Delhi.
The demand from the opposition parties came after a media report, with Sibal, citing filings with the Registrar of Companies (RoC), saying the turnover of Jay Shah-owned Temple Enterprise zoomed by around 16,000 times during 2015-16 from around Rs 80 crore in the previous year.
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Sibal, citing the RoC filings, also alleged that a firm -- Kusum Finserve LLP -- in which Jay Amit Shah had a 60-per cent stake, had got a contract in Madhya Pradesh in the wind power sector, despite the company being engaged in stock trading.
Putting up a strong defence against the opposition parties' attack, Union minister Piyush Goyal dismissed the charge and released a statement by Jay Shah in which he said that he would sue the author, editor and owner of the news website which published the story, for an amount of Rs 100 crore.
"The article makes false, derogatory and defamatory imputation against me by creating in the minds of the right- thinking people an impression that my business owes its 'success' to my father Shri Amitbhai Shah's political position.... My businesses are fully legitimate and conducted in a lawful manner on commercial lines, which is reflected in my tax records, and are through banking transactions," Shah's son said in the statement.
Sibal also alleged that a company owned by Jay Shah got a loan of Rs 25 crore from a cooperative bank without sufficient collateral security, besides a loan of Rs 10.35 crore from the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Limited (IREDA), a public sector firm under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, which was headed by Goyal.
To a query on whether there was any wrongdoing, Sibal said, "I am talking about crony capitalism. Offence will come to light when we get to know why the loan was sanctioned. We know who the CBI and ED will investigate and who the agencies will not investigate. The issue is whether the prime minister is honest enough to say that investigate the son of Amit Shah."
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Later in the evening, Sibal wondered why Goyal, a Union minister, had to defend Jay Shah.
"From an official platform, he (Goyal) defended Jay Shah. He should be defending the government," the former law minister told reporters.
He also questioned Goyal's defence of the cooperative bank which had extended the loan to Jay Shah. He said the bank, and not a Union minister, should defend the loan.
Attacking Modi, Yechury tweeted, "Latest in the series of corruption cases under Modi. Birla-Sahara Dairy, GSPCL, Vyapam, Lalit Modi, rice and mining scams. Why is PM silent?"
"L K Advani had resigned after the Jain Hawala diary episode while its then party president Bangaru Laxman had quit after a corruption expose," Yechury said, asking will it happen now under the Modi government.
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CPI leader D Raja demanded a "high-level SIT probe monitored by the court".
The Aam Aadmi Party also demanded a criminal probe into the allegations.
