Plaint in assets case due to political vendetta: Amarinder

Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh on Tuesday said the complaint filed against him by the Income Tax Department in connection with foreign assets case was an outcome of "political vendetta".

"This issue was brought up by (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi when I was pitted against Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Arun Jaitley (currently the Union Finance Minister) for the Amritsar seat during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. His object was to help Jaitley," Amarinder Singh.

Amarinder Singh won the seat for the Congress during the general elections. He resigned from the seat on November 11 to protest over the Supreme Court verdict on a Presidential Reference on the Sutlej-Yamuna Link Canal on November 10.

"It's been two and a half years. Why now? Why not in the last two and a half years. This has been done obviously for political reasons," the Congress leader added.

The Income Tax Department has filed a prosecution complaint against Amarinder Singh and his son Raninder Singh in an alleged untaxed foreign assets case.

The department said its investigations had revealed that Amarinder Singh was a beneficiary of a trust and other properties owned and created by his son in a foreign country.

The department also accused the Congress leader of furnishing false statement on oath about the ownership of such assets.

--IANS

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