Undue privileges to son, daughter sullied Gujarat CM Anandiben Patel's image

AHMEDABAD: In 2015, an NRI's complaint of corruption against chief minister Anandiben Patel's son was given a quiet burial. NRI Roshan Shah had lodged a complaint with the registrar of companies against M/S Anar Retails Pvt Ltd owned by Anandiben's son Swetank Patel, popularly known as Sanjay Patel. Shah raised doubts over how Sanjay marketed from his mother's Ahmedabad house, which was closed for years together.

However, it was more than a year later that the first serious allegation was levelled against her in a land scam.

The government faced accusations of favouring business partner of Patel's daughter Anar by allotting him a chunk of land without following due procedure. The firm, Wildwoods, received 422 acres of land in 2010 at the rate of Rs 15 per square metre, a huge discount of 91.6 per cent on government's stamp duty rate of Rs 180 per square metre.

Though the deal was cleared by the cabinet under then chief minister Narendra Modi, Patel was the revenue minister. However, the hullabaloo over this controversy temporarily rested after a public interest litigation filed by RTI activists in Gujarat high court demanded a probe and action against the erring officials.

Just when Anandiben was besieged by Dalit uprising, an audio clip of a conversation between Dhari MLA Nalin Kotadiya and senior BJP member Surendra Patel, nee Kaka, surfaced where the latter is heard alleging that the CM had facilitated a land deal where a lot of money changed hands.