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| Sangeet Som denies that he was involved in establishing the meat factory. YouTube screengrab |
October 10, 2015, NewsCrunch
Three media organisations, independently accessing Ministry of Corporate Affairs documents, have alleged that Uttar Pradesh BJP leader and MLA Sangeet Som was director of Al Dua Food Processing Private Limited, which owns a meat processing plant in Aligarh.
The Hindustan Times was the first to break the news, which was developed with additional information by Scroll, and was later confirmed by The Times of India.
The information is significant because Sangeet Som, who identifies himself as a hardline Hindutva leader, had dismissed the revelation as an old political conspiracy.
He had also visited Dadri recently where a middle aged Muslim man had been lynched for allegedly sacrificing a cow and eating beef.
Sangeet Som had warned that a befitting reply would be given if innocent people were framed. Earlier, he had also been accused of making inflammatory speeches during the Muzzafarnagar riots.
Here are the five key points to know about Sangeet Som's alleged links with meat business:
1) Al Dua Food Processing Private Limited describes itself as a leading producer and exporter of halal meat from India and a specialist in the export of “halal buffalo, sheep, goat meat and hides”.
2) Documents show that Sangeet Som was the director of Al Dua between 2005 and 2008. Al Dua's filings, identifies one of its directors as Sangeet Singh Som, son of Ombir Singh, and a resident of KA-64, Kaushambi, Ghaziabad.
As per documents published by Scroll this address matches with the address Sangeet Som provided in his election affidavit for the 2012 elections in Uttar Pradesh. He also declares that an adjoining plot KA-65 also belongs to him.
Scroll also revealed that Sangeet Som owned 20,000 shares in the company. The other two directors Mainnuddin Qureshi and Yogesh Rawat owned a similar number of shares.
3) Quoting Ministry of Corporate Affairs documents, Scroll also reports that Sangeet Som served as an additional director at Al-Anam Agro Foods till 2008, which was also in meat business.
4) Sangeet Som denies that he was involved in establishing the meat factory. He told HT that he was unaware of being appointed as a director of the company. He said he had only bought the land which was later sold to Al Dua.
He also blamed a Samajwadi Party leader Atul Pradhan for creating the controversy to tarnish his image.