Mumbai: “Flower nahi, fire hain me, fire hain,” (I am not a flower, I am fire), proclaims the dialogue, as a dramatic soundtrack plays in the background. On the screen is Mohit Kamboj — who now goes by Mohit Bharatiya — with a vermillion tikka on his forehead and several bracelets on his right hand. Lip-syncing to the dialogue from Allu Arjun-starrer Pushpa: The Rise, he slides his hand across his neck, and points to the camera with a baleful nod.
— Mohit Kamboj Bharatiya – मोहित कंबोज भारतीय (@mohitbharatiya_) February 15, 2022
Kamboj — a billionaire bullion entrepreneur and among the richest Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders — posted the seven-second video on his Twitter handle soon after Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut held a press conference Tuesday evening making sweeping allegations against a number of BJP leaders, including Kamboj.
Raut alleged that Kamboj was a “front man” of Opposition leader and former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, and linked him to the much-delayed Patra Chawl redevelopment project, saying Kamboj had fraudulently used funds from the Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank to buy land at Patra Chawl at a throwaway price. The PMC Bank as well as the Patra Chawl project in Mumbai are under the Enforcement Directorate’s scanner.
Kamboj denied all allegations in his own press conference soon after Raut’s, and followed up with his video meme. “Raut saab talks about big netas. He starts from Modi ji and talks about Fadnavis saab. The whole Maharashtra government and administration has been fighting a 36-year-old boy like me and has not been able to win,” he said.
In October, Kamboj had held a similar press conference firefighting allegations by yet another Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) leader, the Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) Nawab Malik.
Malik had alleged that a person who had been detained by the Narcotics Control Bureau in the Cordelia drugs bust in October — in which actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan was arrested — was let off as he was a relative of Kamboj.
For the past two years, Kamboj, embroiled in several controversies related to his business, seemed to be in political hibernation. However, the series of allegations by Malik and now Raut have brought him back under the glare.
Kamboj has responded with provocative statements and Bollywood-style dialogues. He has slammed Malik and Raut as ‘Salim-Javed,’ Bollywood’s screenwriting duo, and asked them to publish their drug test report, saying, “the way they talk, one can only talk when (one) is high on substance.”
He has also attacked Raut for using “foul language”, and alleged that Raut had borrowed money from him. “Sanjay Raut, mera paisa vapas de (return my money),” Kamboj tweeted Thursday.
On Friday, Kamboj posted a picture of himself with Ashish Shelar, a BJP leader who is said to have been instrumental in inducting the businessman into the party. Both leaders are smiling at the camera with their fists up, while the caption says, “Aa dekhe jara kisme kitna hain dum.” (Let’s see who has more might.)
लड़ाई ऐसी लड़ेंगे की विरोधी भी याद रखेंगे !
आ देखे ज़रा किसमें कितना हैं दम !जय भवानी जय शिवाजी !
हर हर महादेव ! pic.twitter.com/KUf6x13m3q— Mohit Kamboj Bharatiya – मोहित कंबोज भारतीय (@mohitbharatiya_) February 18, 2022
Also read: Sanjay Raut’s ‘fraud link’ claims latest chapter in constant Kirit Somaiya-vs-Shiv Sena battle
From businessman to politician
Kamboj is originally from Varanasi and grew up learning the ins and outs of the gems and jewellery business from his father, Banwarilal Kamboj.
He migrated to Mumbai for his college education, and subsequently launched his own gems and jewellery business, KBJ Jewellery, in 2005. Over the years, the KBJ Group has made forays into real estate, farming, hospitality, entertainment, education and other sectors.
Kamboj was also the national president of the India Bullion and Jewellers Association from 2012 to 2019.
He joined the BJP in 2013, and has served as president of the Mumbai branch of the party’s youth wing, the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha.
A Mumbai-based BJP leader who did not wish to be named said, “In 2013, the BJP seemed to be fast expanding in Mumbai, and Ashish Shelar was the Mumbai BJP president. He brought Kamboj into the BJP, saying that if he were willing to join politics, the party would find some post for him.”
“There are very few leaders who make it into the good books of the senior leaders — but very quickly, Kamboj did. He has the capacity, calibre, and guts. He subsequently did a lot of work for Devendra Fadnavis’ campaign.”
That Kamboj has deep pockets was always well known, and BJP sources say that this, and his contacts, made him all the more resourceful for the party.
The extent of his riches, however, came to the fore when he contested the 2014 assembly election from the Dindoshi constituency in Mumbai. With declared assets of Rs 353.53 crore, Kamboj was the wealthiest candidate in the race, even more affluent than BJP MLA Mangal Prabhat Lodha, who owns a plush luxury real estate firm.
‘In Fadnavis’ good books’
In the run-up to the Lok Sabha election in 2019, when the BJP’s campaign was centred around nationalism — invoking incidents such as the 2016 Uri attack on an Indian Army base, and India’s retaliatory surgical strike in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir — Kamboj made a grand gesture of officially changing his last name to ‘Bharatiya.’ He plastered Mumbai’s billboards and hoardings with declarations of his name change.
Announcing his name change in a press conference, Kamboj said, “I have seen discrimination from close quarters in the name of caste, community and region. I am inspired by the PM’s Ek Bharat, Sreshtha Bharat (One India, Best India) slogan and want to create a casteless society.”
A second BJP leader told ThePrint, “Kamboj was actively involved in planning Devendra Fadnavis’ campaign in Mumbai, and would say that he would leave politics if Fadnavis loses as CM. We all know what happened later.”
After Fadnavis’ ouster in 2019, the BJP leader said Kamboj focussed more on his business and withdrew from active party affairs, choosing to work just as a BJP karyakarta amid a number of controversies related to his business.
In 2019, the state-run Bank of Baroda published a newspaper advertisement, saying it had initiated proceedings to declare Kamboj a “wilful defaulter” in connection with borrowings by a firm called Avyaan Ornaments.
Kamboj, however, said that he was neither a promoter nor director of this company, and had paid Rs. 76 crore as a personal guarantor for his part of the liability.
In 2020, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a case of bank fraud against Kamboj with regard to a loan taken by Avyaan Overseas, of which Kamboj was the managing director and guarantor, from Bank of India. Kamboj has denied the charges, saying that he and the bank had mutually agreed to a one-time settlement in 2018.
(Edited by Rohan Manoj)
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