Fake Degrees and Passport: Making of Patanjali’s Billionaire CEO
In 2012 Balkrishna was arrested by CBI for passport forgery but the charges were dropped when NDA came into power.
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Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurveda is growing fast with a net sale of Rs 5000 crores in 2015-16. But Baba Ramdev is only the face of the consumer products company.
Balkrishna Suvedi, popularly known as Acharya Balkrishna who is supposed to be a close aide of the yoga guru is the brain behind Patanjali’s success.
With an ownership of 94 percent of the company’s stake, 43-year-old Acharya Balkrishna is now a billionaire who has entered the Huron India Rich List 2016 with Rs 25,6000 crore to his name, India Times reported.
But his billionaire status doesn’t come without controversies around his Indian citizenship and his education.
His high school and Sanskrit degrees from Sampurna Nand Sanskrit University, allegedly do not exist on records.
Balakrishna who was born to Nepalese parents who later migrated to India, was also charged with cheating and criminal conspiracy for procuring fake degrees to acquire an Indian passport.
In 2012 he was arrested by CBI who claimed his passport was forged but all charges against him were dropped when the NDA came into power. A response to an RTI query revealed that Patanjali Ayurveda had donated Rs 11,00,000 to the BJP, in 2009, as donation for general elections.
Balkrishna met Ramdev at a gurukul in Haryana and later helped him set up a number of businesses with him serving as the managing director in 34 of them.
(Source: India Times)
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