Ramdev's business empire worth Rs 1,100 cr

Yoga guru Baba Ramdev, who is on an indefinite hunger strike against black money and corruption, today made public details of his business empire worth over Rs 1,100 crore, claiming everything was in order.

On his sixth day of fast, Ramdev addressed a press conference here during which his close aide Balakrishna said that the capital involving the four trusts run by him totalled Rs 426.19 crore while the expenditure incurred on them amounted to Rs 751.02 crore.

"We believe in transparency in work and in financial matters. There is proper audit of all our firms and companies. As per rules, government renews our trusts after every two years only when our audits are clean. What has come and what has gone, who has given it and how was it spent, is all maintained," Balakrishna said.

The move to make public assets followed questions raised by Digvijay Singh and other Congress leaders who wanted a thorough probe into the source of the wealth acquired by Ramdev in the last five years.

Balakrishna, however, did not give details of the companies associated with Ramdev, saying it can be obtained from Registrar of Companies under the RTI Act.

"We pay tax as per government norms. TDS is deducted. We follow all rules. Details of all out associate companies can be taken from Registrar of Companies and from the government under the RTI Act. Tax details and balance sheets of trusts have been put on the web site," he said.

While Divya Yoga Mandir trust has a capital of Rs 249.63 crore, Patanjali Yoga Peeth trust has Rs 164.80 crore, Bharat Swabhiman trust has Rs 9.97 crore and Acharyakul Shiksha Sansthan has Rs 1.79 crore -- all totalling Rs 426.19 crore. The exependiture outlined for these trusts since their inception came to Rs 751.02 crore.