Amarinder Singh dismisses I-T complaint as Jaitley's political vendetta

Income Tax department filed a prosecution complaint against Singh in an alleged untaxed foreign assets case

Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh on Friday dismissed the complaint filed against him by the Income Tax department in connection with foreign assets case as the "political vendetta" of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

The Income Tax department on Friday filed a prosecution complaint against Amarinder Singh in an alleged untaxed foreign assets case.

Dismissing it "as malafide and politically motivated", Amarinder Singh said: "The cowardly act, engineered by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley out of sheer political vendetta, would not stand in the court of law."

"Now that the matter is in court, the true colours and instructions of political vendetta by Jaitley will be exposed," he added.

He further said he will request the court to summon the Finance Minister and other senior officials of the IT department to expose all those who were part of the conspiracy.

"I have known about this conspiracy for the past two years and was waiting for this opportunity to get all these people on the stand," he said.

"Jaitley's reaction, which had come in response to his challenge to fight the Amritsar Lok Sabha by election, was predictable.

"It was during 2014 Lok Sabha election, which Jaitley had lost by a huge margin from Amritsar, that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had first raise the bogey of my foreign assets case," he said, adding that it had not helped save Jaitley from "a humiliating defeat".

He noted that even the Enforcement Department (ED) and the Income Tax department, acting at the Jaitley's behest, had failed to dig out any proof against him or his family members in the past two years.

"Why did the IT not file any complaint in the past two years instead of waiting for the elections," asked Singh, adding that the charges were completely fabricated.

"Such cheap tactics will not help the BJP-SAD ruling alliance escape the total rout they are facing in the forthcoming assembly elections.

"Such vindictive moves would backfire on Jaitley and the Modi government at the Centre, as well as the Badals in the state," he added.