Sonia should clarify on Singhvi's alleged tax evasion, says BJP

Says Singhvi case symptomatic of how Cong MPs converting black money into white

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said on Tuesday that the alleged income tax evasion by Congress’ member of Parliament Abhishek Manu Singhvi was symptomatic of how black money was being generated in India by none other than some of the top leaders of the Congress. It demanded Congress president Sonia Gandhi clarify her stand on the issue of black money.

“This issue of Abhishek Manu Singhvi is a sample that has come out in the public domain about how several Congress leaders are involved in turning black money into white. The Congress has created a lot of black money during the past 10 years of its government, which saw several scams. Congress president Sonia Gandhi should clarify how many more of Congress MPs are involved in such misconduct,” said BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma.

Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma dismissed the BJP's demand that the Congress president should clarify the issue as “outrageous”.

Sharma added, “It is a ridiculous demand. The Congress president is not the accounts keeper of anyone's accounts. Each of us is responsible for our own accounts and it just shows the BJP's petty thinking.”

Shrikant Sharma accused the Congress of being the "fountainhead of corruption" and said this is the reason why its MPs did not give an undertaking on black money in Parliament whereas all the BJP legislators had done so. He said the Congress until the other day was raising questions on Narendra Modi-led government's efforts in bringing back black money stashed in foreign banks abroad. "They should now respond. People living in glass houses shouldn't throw stones at others," he said, pointing out how recent comments by former Finance Minister P Chidambaram and former Law Minister Hansraj Bhardwaj have proved that the Congress party's top leadership was in the loop in decisions taken in the 2G spectrum allocations.

"Either you (Congress) own up that your tall leaders are evading taxes and indulging in generation of black money or you disown Singhvi," BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said. Furnishing details of revelations by the Income Tax Settlement Commission, Patra said there has been a substantial increase in Singhvi's income and, in a short span of time from January 15 2011 to March 31, 2011 there was a considerable jump in payments for his legal assistance. "In this short span of about two-and-a-half months, about 18,199 vouchers were signed by Singhvi. On a single day, March 31, 2011, about 1,207 vouchers were signed. All these are self -made vouchers. No authentic bills were procured," Patra said.

Patra alleged that Singhvi has no documentary proof to back his claims of how he spent his money. "Today he says that all the documentary evidence was destroyed in a termite attack. That is highly ridiculous. "The corrupt termites are now trying to hide behind the real termites," he said.

Singhvi is said to have approached the Commission seeking immunity from penalty and prosecution by saying that termites ate up his tax and expense records and he could not prove his claims. According to media reports, the Commission is said to have added over Rs 91.95 crore to his declared professional income and slapped a penalty of Rs 56.67 crore on him.

Basing his allegations on the Settlement Commission's revelations, Patra said that on February 28, 2012, Rs 5 crore were spent by Singhvi on laptops meant for his legal assistants. He said Singhvi's salary sheet shows he had employed 14 advocates and professionals to assist him. "He would have to purchase 1,250 laptops (each costing Rs 40,000) to account for the amount under that head," he said.

He further alleged that Singhvi claimed to have spent Rs 35.98 crore on purchase of solar panels for his company while the owner of the company which sold the panels has agreed before IT authorities that Rs 10 crore was to be repaid to Singhvi in the form of a loan to his sons.

Patra said Singhvi cannot hide behind the excuse of "legal malaise" as the whole investigation began during the tenure of Pranab Mukherjee as the Finance Minister and continued through his successor P Chidambaram's period with only the results having come out now.