BJP demands PM to order legal action against CWG tax evaders

"After detection of tax evasion of Rs 1,000 crore by the CVC in the 2010 Commonwealth Games, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should order the Home Ministry to start legal action and send the guilty persons to jail so that the white-collared people who are responsible for tax evasion may be punished," Delhi BJP President Vijender Gupta said.

Gupta said this while referring to the report about the CVC detecting Rs 1,000 crore tax evasion in CWG projects.

Vigilance Commissioner R Srikumar had told PTI that the Central Vigilance Commission has detected tax evasion of about Rs 1,000 crore by government departments and private companies in carrying out the Commonwealth Games-related works.

"In the CVC, we have been trying this (multi-jurisdiction investigation platform) out in our direct inquiries into the CWG scam where 37 departments spent over Rs 15,000 crore in 9,000 publicly funded projects," he had said.

Gupta said the CAG, the CVC, the CBI, the Excise and I-T departments among other various central agencies have earlier exposed bungling of thousands of crores in the Commonwealth Games projects, but only small players have been apprehended while big players were allowed to go scot-free, Gupta said.

He said the Delhi government had started works worth about Rs 25,000 crore before the Games, but many of them were still incomplete.

"The cost of these incomplete works have increased ten times but the persons responsible have not been punished. Many political persons, officers of Delhi Government are involved. Government knows about it but action has not been started," he alleged. (More)