Chandigarh: The Income Tax department has filed a charge sheet against Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh in connection with its probe against him and his son in a case of alleged untaxed foreign assets.

Official sources said the department filed the prosecution complaint (equivalent to a police charge sheet) in a competent court in Ludhiana in Punjab yesterday and the former chief minister has been charged under section 277 of the I-T Act (false statement in verification) and IPC sections 176 (omission to give notice or information to public servant by person legally bound to give it), 177 (furnishing false information), 193 (punishment for false evidence) and 199 (false statement made in declaration which is by law receivable as evidence).

Amarinder took to Twitter to accuse Finance Minister Arun Jaitley of complicity.

“I challenged Arun Jaitley to fight by-elections in Amritsar and this is how he responds. So predictable!,” he tweeted.

According to the complaint, a copy of which was accessed by PTI, the I-T department said during its investigations Singh was “found to be the beneficiary” of a trust and other properties owned and created by his son Raninder in a foreign territory and when questioned about these, the Congress chief ministerial candidate for the state gave a “false statement on oath” about the ownership of these assets.

It said Singh was “actively involved” in the creation of these trusts and foreign properties which were not disclosed to the department for tax purposes.

The department has already filed a similar complaint against Raninder and has charged him under section 276C of the I-T Act in the case (wilful attempt to evade tax) and the same charges would now apply on the senior Singh.

The case came to light when the Income Tax department received information about Raninder allegedly holding the offshore account in Switzerland as part of details received by the Central Board of Direct Taxes from its French counterparts in 2011.

The department had also detected movement of funds to Switzerland and creation of a trust and a few subsidiaries in the tax haven of British Virgin Islands allegedly by Raninder.

Both Amarinder and Raninder have denied any wrongdoing and termed as “false” the charges.

Based on the earlier I-T department charge sheet, the Enforcement Directorate too had registered a case against Raninder under the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) sometime back and has also questioned him.

Jaitley had lost the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat in 2014 to Amarinder Singh. Only yesterday Amarinder had dared Jaitley to contest the Amritsar bypoll again, saying let it be a referendum on the Narendra Modi government’s demonetisation move.

Sukhbir touches Amarinder’s feet who sent him soft drink in jail

New Delhi: They may be arch political rivals but Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal said he touches Captain Amarinder Singh’s feet as a mark of respect.

On his part, Singh said he had sent a soft drink to Badal when the SAD President was in jail.

This was revealed by the two Punjab leaders while participating in the HT Leadership Summit here.

Asked if there is a “secret alliance” between the two leaders which was also suggested by Badal touching Singh’s feet when he walked in for the event, the Congress leader said, “…I don’t think it’s a fair question. Everybody has his own culture, we do have our own culture. I am elder to him and he pays his respect. And one takes it in that way not that he is doing it as Deputy Chief Minister.”

In his reply, Badal said, “…I have always touched his feet. I always touch every elder’s feet. Even when he had put us behind bars and I met him, I touched his feet..So I’ve always done it actually that made me a leader too.”

Responding to Badal, Singh said, “…Don’t forget when he was behind bars…I got a message that he only drinks Diet Coke. So, I sent him Diet coke.”

Later on, replying to another question about one good quality in Sukhbir, Singh said, “Unlike his father, he(Sukhbir Badal) does what he says.”

To which Sukhbir responded, “This is the one quality which we share.”

PTI