New Delhi: Union minister Anurag Thakur, along with his wife Sheffali, own firearms, with the minister adding a rifle worth Rs 1.3 lakh to his collection during his last term in the Lok Sabha, apart from pre-existing pistols, according to the affidavit filed Monday. The I&B minister has disclosed assets totaling Rs 10.7 crore — a figure that has seen a nearly two-fold increase in the past five years.
A hint of Thakur’s fascination with guns and bullets came in January 2020 when his ‘desh ke gaddaron ko, goli maaro saalon ko (shoot the traitors of our country)’ speech triggered a huge controversy.
Thakur is eyeing a fifth consecutive term from Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh as a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate.
His movable assets, valued at Rs 5.44 crore, include firearms — a pistol and a rifle — valued at Rs 3.25 lakh and Rs 1.3 lakh, respectively.
The Union minister’s insurance investments include nine policies with a surrender value of Rs 66.45 lakh. His investments in shares and mutual funds have surged by 260 percent, with share investments reaching Rs 47.35 lakh and mutual fund investments in HDFC Bank swelling to Rs 2.4 crore. In 2019, his investment in shares and mutual funds was Rs 79.18 lakh.
He has stakes in two private companies — Jaiaditya Holdings Pvt Ltd and Sant Online Systems Pvt Ltd — valued at Rs 19.94 lakh and Rs 90,000, respectively. Additionally, Thakur has extended a loan of Rs 1.02 crore to Jaiaditya Holdings, where he, his wife, and his brother serve as directors.
Meanwhile, Sheffali Thakur possesses a pistol worth Rs 2.5 lakh, with her total assets amounting to Rs 97 lakh — nearly half of which is attributed to gold jewellery valued at Rs 48.3 lakh.
The bulk of Thakur’s immovable assets is agricultural land, valued at Rs 2.6 crore, located in Himachal Pradesh and acquired between 2000 and 2010. He also owns non-agricultural land worth Rs 1 crore, primarily in Punjab’s Jalandhar and Kapurthala.
Moreover, Thakur purchased a residential property in Jalandhar in 2004, now valued at Rs 1.89 crore. He also has an outstanding loan of Rs 1.43 crore, his only declared liability.
Though a native of Himachal Pradesh, Thakur’s education primarily happened in Jalandhar. After his schooling in Punjab, he completed his Bachelor of Arts from Doaba College, Jalandhar, in 1994.
In the upcoming elections scheduled on 1 June, Thakur is up against Congress’s Satpal Raizada, a former MLA from Una.
Hamirpur is considered a stronghold of the Union minister, whose fourth consecutive win came by a margin of nearly 4 lakh votes. However, the BJP’s failure to win any assembly segments in the district — where the Congress claimed four seats in 2022 and an Independent took the Hamirpur seat — may pose a challenge for him.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)