Jaya-Amitabh have combined assets worth Rs 1,000 crore: Affidavit
Lucknow: Actress-turned-politician Jaya Bachchan has declared movable and immovable assets worth Rs 493 crore in her affidavit to the Election Commission (EC).
The three-term Rajya Sabha MP of the Samajwadi Party (SP) in the affidavit submitted to the poll panel while filing nomination for her fourth straight term has declared that her assets along with that of her husband, Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan, have doubled since her last such affidavit in 2012.
According to the affidavit, the 69-year-old politician, together with her husband, has immovable assets worth over Rs 460 crore, and their movable assets are valued at Rs 540 crore, much above the Rs 343 crore declared in 2012.
The list of her movable assets includes a pen worth Rs 9 lakh and watches worth Rs 51 lakh, though less expensive than what her hubby Big B owns -- watches worth a whopping Rs 3.4 crore.
The couple owns a 3,175 square metre residential property in Brignogan Plages in France other than plush properties in Bhopal (MP), Noida (UP), Delhi, Pune and Mumbai (Maharashtra), and in Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad cities of Gujarat.
Amitabh Bachchan has been shown as owning a Rs 5.7-crore three-acre plot in Daulatpur area of Barabanki district and the Rajya Sabha MP herself owns a Rs 2.2-crore agricultural land measuring 1.22 hectare in Kakori area of Lucknow.
Poll panel officials say that with assets adding up to almost Rs 1,000 crore, Jaya Bachchan could well be walking into the Rajya Sabha as the richest lawmaker at present.
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Who is Iran's first vice president, Mohammad Mokhber, appointed acting president after crash?
Dubai (AP/PTI): Iran's first Vice President Mohammad Mokhber was appointed as acting president of the Islamic Republic on Monday after the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash in the country's northwest.
Raisi's death under the constitution thrust Mokhber into public view. He is expected to serve as caretaker president for some 50 days before mandatory presidential elections in Iran.
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made the announcement of Mokhber's appointment in a condolence message he shared for Raisi's death in the crash Sunday. The helicopter was found Monday in northwestern Iran.
Despite his low-key public profile, Mokhber has held prominent positions with in the country's power structure, particularly in its bonyads, or charitable foundations.
Mokhber oversaw a bonyad known in English as the Execution of Imam Khomeini's Order, or EIKO, referring to the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
The US Treasury said the organisation oversaw billions of dollars in assets as “a business juggernaut under the direct supervision of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei that has a stake in nearly every sector of the Iranian economy, including energy, telecommunications, and financial services”.
“EIKO has systematically violated the rights of dissidents by confiscating land and property from opponents of the regime, including political opponents, religious minorities, and exiled Iranians,” the Treasury said in 2021 in sanctioning Mokhber. The European Union also had sanctioned Mokhber for a time with others over concerns then about Iran's nuclear programme.
As the head of EIKO, Mokhber oversaw an effort to make a COVID-19 vaccine during the height of the pandemic, pledging to make tens of millions of doses.
Mokhber previously worked in banking and telecommunications. He also worked at the Mostazafan Foundation, another bonyad that's a major conglomerate that manages the country's mega-projects and businesses. While there, he found himself entangled in a bitter legal dispute between mobile phone service providers Turkcell and South Africa's MTN over potentially entering the Iranian market.
Iranian media reports suggest Mokhber, who holds a doctorate in international law, was crucial in Iranian efforts to bypass Western sanctions on its oil industry.
Mokhber has been a member of Iran's Expediency Council since 2022, which advises the supreme leader, as well as settles disputes between parliament and the Guardian Council, Iran's constitutional watchdog that also oversees the country's elections.
Mokhber was born Sept 1, 1955, in Dezful in Iran's southwestern Khuzestan province to a clerical family. He served as an officer in the Revolutionary Guard's medical corps during the 1980s Iran-Iraq war, according to the pressure group United Against Nuclear Iran.
“Mokhber used the vast wealth accumulated by EIKO — at the expense of the Iranian people—to reward regime insiders like himself,” UANI said. “Managing the patronage network endeared him to the supreme leader, but at a cost.”
