Prime Minister Modi and Amit Shah. Credit: PTIIt would appear that the BJP bought acres and acres of land in Bihar till the first week of November, just before Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced demonetisation on November 8. A report by Catch News today, alleged that the BJP has bought land worth crores before announcing that Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes are no longer valid. Catch News claims to have the deeds of ten such transactions done by BJP functionaries on behalf of higher-ups in the party, including party president Amit Shah.The report refers to Sanjeev Chaurasia, a BJP MLA who told Catch News, “Land was being bought everywhere… In other places too, along with Bihar… We are merely the signatory authority; the money came from the party… the plots were bought for building party offices and other purposes. They were bought up to the first week of November.”According to the report, the value of the plots bought were anything between Rs 8 lakh and Rs 1.16 crore. It implicated Amit Shah, for whom property worth above Rs 60 lakh was bought in Lakhisarai, as per the report. Lal Babu Prasad (vice-chairman of BJP’s Bihar unit), Dilip Kumar Jaiswal (treasurer of BJP’s Bihar unit) and Chaurasia (who is also the general secretary of BJP’s Bihar unit) are also implicated by the report.Bihar chief minister, Nitish Kumar and his party, Janata Dal (United), attacked the central government and the demonetisation move, and demanded that there be a Supreme Court enquiry into the matter.Catch News has pointed to the fact that it is an open secret that illicit wealth is easily hidden in real estate.https://twitter.com/JanatadalU/status/801775953248718848https://twitter.com/JanatadalU/status/801782758360096768It would appear that the JD(U)’s outrage was prompted by a broadcast on local TV channel, Kashish News, last evening.https://twitter.com/JanatadalU/status/801803456289837056Delhi chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, took to Twitter to shame the BJP, while Congress spokesperson, Salman Anees Soz demanded that the BJP respond to Catch News’ report.This is really shocking. BJP ne apna paisa thikaane laga liya. Shameful. https://t.co/WkkwQimbP9— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) November 25, 2016.@narendramodi & @AmitShah must respond to serious allegations: BJP's large bank deposits & now land purchases before #demonetisation https://t.co/zxvfqFneHq— Salman Anees Soz (@SalmanSoz) November 25, 2016Mallikarjun Kharge, leader of Congress in the Lok Sabha, has accused the prime minister of “selective leakage” of the demonetisation move to his own party members, who converted their black money through property and other avenues.“This shows who the real supporters of black money are,” he told reporters outside parliament.Congress chief spokesperson, Randeep Surjewala also accused Modi of leaking the demonetisation beforhand to top BJP leaders, terming it as the “biggest scam”.According to PTI, the Congress is up and arms and has released a list of some BJP leaders who allegedly bought 8 land parcels worth Rs 3.41 crore in Bihar prior to November 8 demonetisation.Surjewala said, “Modiji’s mask of fighting black money is off. Stop mocking the people of India and parliament and look in the mirror. Make all BJP accounts public and tell us the details of all property purchased by BJP leaders over the last one year and the truth of demonetisation scam will be out,”While the BJP government and the PMO have not extended any formal explanation, the BJP’s twitter handle reproduced a translated statement made by Modi on his own account which claimed that the allegations are being made because people weren’t given fair warning before demonestisation.Problem of those criticizing the recent decision against black money & corruption is that the govt did not give them time to prepare : PM pic.twitter.com/xmFGE4735J— BJP (@BJP4India) November 25, 2016(with PTI inputs)
