Chandigarh: 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 levelled against his son.
The ED has summoned Amarinder Singh'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 levelled 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 Singh 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," Singh 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 member 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 Mr 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," Mr Singh alleged.
On Congress leader Jagdish Tytler's alleged role in 1984 anti-Sikh riots, the ex-Punjab chief minister clarified that he had never given clean chit to anyone or to Tytler.
Mr Singh 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, HKL Bhagat, Dharamdas Shastri, Lalit Maken and Arjan Das.
"Tytler's name appeared when he fought in election against Madan Lal Khurana in Delhi after a few months. If his name comes up during probe, then hang him," Mr Singh said.
