BJP leader Arun Jaitley on Thursday backed the claim by party colleague Subramanian Swamy that Amarinder Singh has not disclosed offshore accounts held by two of his family members in his nomination papers, a charge on which the Congress leader threatened legal action.
Jaitley said that Swamy’s charge is based on documents. “Swamy’s statement is not a vague allegation,” Jaitley said adding that it gives details of the trust of which there are Indian beneficiaries. “It also refers to details of certain accounts,” he claimed.
Seeking a probe into the matter, Jaitley said, “It is for the Government of India through its agencies to issue a letter to competent authorities outside asking for details. It is only then that these details can either be confirmed or contradicted. Are the persons named in Swamy’s statement willing to waive off all legal rights in favour of the government agencies, asking the government to come out with confirmation or denialIJ” asked Jaitley.
Meanwhile in Delhi, reiterating his allegations Swamy distributed the foreign bank transaction documents of Amarinder’s wife and Union Minister Preneet Kaur, and son Raninder The BJP leader told The Pioneer that as per election law, the candidate has to disclose the bank account of his spouse otherwise it would attract a case of perjury and seven years imprisonment.
Asked about Captain’s threat of defamation, Swamy said “let him file it, even Rahul Gandhi said so but did not do so.”
On Jaitley’s statement that matter should be probed, Amarinder said, “scared Jaitley is using services of Swamy to malign” him. “I hope even Jaitley as a lawyer also has faith in the system and till then one expects him to exercise restraint rather than riding piggy back on a mercenary no matter even if he has hired him himself and paid a price for it,” said Amarinder.
Amarinder observed, “either Jaitley has forgotten all his legal education or he has grown too desperate that he wants to buy his own allegations he got levelled through Swamy but has not the moral courage to own these up himself”.