Of 1,200 people, tax sleuths targeting my wife, son: Capt
Tuesday, 22/03/2016
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CHANDIGARH: Punjab Congress chief Captain Amarinder Singh on Monday questioned the motive and timing of the income tax department notice to his son Raninder Singh.
“Why was the issue raked up during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections when I was contesting against BJP’s Arun Jaitley and why do they want the case to come up in July? Why was the Union government pursuing issue of foreign accounts of my wife Preneet Kaur and son while there were 1,200 others accused of having similar accounts,” he said, while talking to the media after the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting.
Amarinder announced that he will move the high court seeking quashing of the complaint. “We can’t take it lying down and won’t allow ourselves to be blackmailed. We will call their bluff,” he said.
Showing letters from HSBC authorities to claim neither Preneet nor Raninder had any account in any of the branches of the HSBC, he said two letters signed by managing director of the HSBC Robert J Du Lessis and director Stephen Barney dated September 6, 2011, had certified that they did not have any account in the bank.
Referring to the issue of Jacaranda Trust India and Mulwala Holdings Limited, Amarinder produced copy of another letter issued by the HSBC Dubai which stated there was not and never had been any accounts in the name of Jacaranda Trust India or Mulwala Holdings Limited in any of the branches of the HSBC Financial Services (Middle East) Limited. He also pointed out that the purported account shown against the name of his wife and son was shown having “zero” balance.
“How can it be possible to have an account and that too in a Swiss Bank without any balance,” he asked.
“These documents had been submitted to the tax authorities long back and they had initially stopped pursuing the matter. But as elections were round the corner, the BJP and the Akalis are raking up the issue,” he added.
