BeyondHeadlines Special Correspondent
Haridwar (Uttrakhand): Yoga guru Ramdev, who is on an indefinite hunger strike against black money and corruption, yesterday declared his assets worth more than Rs 11,000 million, claiming everything was in order.
Ramdev, whose fast has entered 7th day today, made the details of his business empire public in a press conference here during which his close aide Balkrishna said that the capital involving the four trusts run by him totalled Rs 4,261.9 million while the expenditure incurred on them amounted to Rs 7,510.20 million.
File photo of Baba Ramdev with Balkrishna
“We believe in transparency in work and in financial matters. There is proper audit of all our firms and companies,” Balkrishna, who allegedly posses fake passport and is involved illegal possession of fire arms.
As per rules, government renews our trusts after every two years only when our audits are clean. What has come and what has gone, who has given it and how was it spent, is all maintained,” Balakrishna said.
The move to make public assets followed questions raised by Digvijay Singh and other leaders of the Congress party who wanted a thorough probe into the source of the wealth acquired by Ramdev in the last five years.
Balakrishna, however, did not give details of the companies associated with Ramdev, saying it can be obtained from Registrar of Companies under the RTI Act.
“We pay tax as per government norms. TDS is deducted. We follow all rules. Details of all out associate companies can be taken from Registrar of Companies and from the government under the RTI Act. Tax details and balance sheets of trusts have been put on the web site,” he said.
While Divya Yoga Mandir trust has a capital of Rs 2,496.30 million, Patanjali Yoga Peeth Trust has Rs 1648 million, Bharat Swabhiman Trust has Rs 99.7 million and Acharyakul Shiksha Sansthan has Rs 17.9 million — all totalling Rs 4,261.9 million. The expenditure outlined for these trusts since their inception came to Rs 7,510.2 million.
