Amarinder challenges Jaitley to prove charges against his son

Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh today accused Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley of "using" the Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax department against him and his family, and "challenged" him to prove the allegations leveled against his son.
The ED has summoned Amarinder's son Raninder, in connection with its probe against him for alleged forex contraventions and holding of untaxed foreign assets.
"Just because Jaitley's agencies accuse somebody with baseless charges does not mean the person is guilty. I challenge him to prove all allegations leveled against my son in the court of law," he said.
"He (Jaitley) has the ED, Income Tax department under his ministry and is using those against me and my family members to avenge his defeat (in Amristar Lok Sabha seat)," Amarinder alleged, adding the repeated allegations only "corroborate his intentions and mindset that he has not forgotten the defeat".

"Earlier it was my wife, now my son. Tomorrow it can be even me that they will level allegations against as it is the election season. This will build up till (Punjab) polls. This is happening because polls are round the corner," he said.
"But we have the rule of the law in the country and we have full faith in our judicial system. All these allegations will eventually fall flat," Amarinder said.

"I also got a notice from the Income Tax department when I was in the USA. I have replied to that. They can call the ED, the Income Tax...We will come out clean," he said, adding, "There is no illegality and no breaking of Indian law at all."

The Lok Sabha MP from Amritsar said that even probe agencies did not find anything wrong against him and his family when the issue came up in 2005, adding even Narendra Modi had spoken against him in Barmer during Lok Sabha polls in 2014 to help Jaitley win in Amritsar.
"When BJP formed the government, Jaitley asked a very senior officer to register a case against me within two months. The officer after few months even told him that there was nothing wrong against me," he claimed.
"He (Jaitley) is a petty man. They have done this with P Chidambaram, Virbhadra Singh," Amarinder alleged.

On Congress leader Jagdish Tytler's alleged role in 1984 anti-Sikh riots, the ex-Punjab CM clarified that he had never given clean chit to anyone or to Tytler.
Amarinder reiterated that he had only said that when he had met the victims of the anti-Sikh riots, nobody mentioned Tytler's name to him as the accused. The names mentioned were that of Sajjan Kumar, H K L Bhagat, Dharamdas Shastri, Lalit Maken and Arjan Das.
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On the issue of pro-Khalistan slogans raised in the Golden Temple today on the 32nd anniversary of Operation Bluestar, Amarinder said people now do not care about such slogans.

He also criticised SAD(Amritsar) chief Simranjit Singh Mann for raising such slogans in the Golden Temple and accused SAD of raking up the issue of Operation Bluestar as and when elections come near.
He said Congress president Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had already expressed regret with regard to Operation Bluestar.
Earlier in the day, he allocated duties to party general secretaries and vice presidents for various districts and assembly segments.
While there will be one general secretary in-charge of each assembly segment, for each district there will be one vice president.
Addressing the office bearers, Amarinder asked them to get into the battle gear as elections in Punjab can be preponed and may be held in month of December.

The state Congress chief also announced a 45-day public interaction programme during which he will cover all the 117 assembly segments. It will start on June 24 and will conclude on August 8.
During the campaign, people will be made aware about the "failures of the Central and Punjab governments" on various issues including law-and-order, rising debt, farmer suicides.
Senior Congress leader Laal Singh said the party will hold three dharnas over various issues including the "deteriorating" law-and-order situation in Punjab.
The first dharna will be held at Dina Nagar in Gurdaspur on June 8 against the alleged non-payment of Rs 250 crore to farmers, another one in Jalandhar on June 13 against the "deteriorating law-and-order situation in the state, while the third one will be held in Lambi on June 18 against the alleged recruitment scam, he said.