Baba Ramdev’s shell companies and flourishing real estate business

Baba Ramdev’s crusade against ‘black money’ before 2014 and his support to the BJP and Narendra Modi is well documented. Even before 2014, the Yoga Guru had been the recipient of vast tracts of land, some allotted on lease by state governments to set up industry and some bought by companies and Trusts floated by Ramdev, described by a wag as the ‘Baba of Business’. His business empire now extends from Ayurvedic medicines to Fast Moving Consumer Goods and cosmetics. He also owns several TV channels including Aastha channel and Sanskar TV.

Now, a two-part investigation done by Shreegireesh Jalihal and Tapasya for the Reporters’ Collective (links below) shows that in Haryana, Baba Ramdev is a major player in sale and purchase of land. Why does he need, however, a maze of shell companies to invest in land?

Kankhal Ayurveda Pvt Ltd was set up in 2006 with the purpose of manufacturing Ayurvedic drugs. Patanjali Corrupack Pvt Ltd was set up in 2009 with the purpose of manufacturing packaging material. Neither company, the reporters found, had set up any manufacturing unit. They have, however, been active in buying and selling of land.

Kankhal Ayurveda, for example, purchased 43 acres of land by 2011 for a sum of Rs 2.66 crore. It had however sold 41 acres of land for Rs 12.38 crore, booking a ‘profit’ of Rs 9.72 crore. How did a ‘zero revenue’ company with no production manage to make a neat 365 per cent profit? More importantly, how was the company allowed to buy land cheap for industrial purposes and sell the land to realtors?

One acre of land in Faridabad, the report says, is enough to put up seven towers, each with 10 2BHK apartments.

Another company, Patanjali Corrupack Pvt Ltd., was set up in 2009 with the purpose of manufacturing packaging material. There is no evidence so far that it has manufactured anything, but the company used its share capital of over Rs 5 crore to buy and sell land. Curiously, the company does not appear to have issued the shares either.

The report also lists several of the companies of the Patanjali group active in this village in Faridabad. The reporters, however, have looked into only two of these companies, Kankhal and Corrupack.

Some of these Patanjali companies identified in the report are Gaurisuta Building Solutions Pvt Ltd., Dhoomawati Enterprises, Bhoomi Enterprises, Patanjali Paridhan Pvt Ltd., Greenapple Security Systems etc., all of them apparently engaged in real estate.

The report also highlights how the union government and the Haryana government facilitated the plunder of Aravalli Hills, one of the oldest mountain range that extends from Gujarat and Rajasthan up to Haryana. Despite orders by the Supreme Court in 1996 and 2022, the two governments dragged their feet, manipulated records which helped privatise common land which was controlled by panchayats till the 1960s.

The two reports released by Reporters’ Collective can be accessed here:

Patanjali Group spawned dubious shell companies for lucrative real estate business (reporters-collective.in)

As Haryana kept Aravallis unprotected, Patanjali quietly traded forestland (reporters-collective.in)