Barely a day after its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi was accused of keeping the identity of his wife a secret, the BJP hit back at the Congress accusing its senior leader Kapil Sibal of playing a fraud on the Election Commission by failing to disclose on affidavit details of three companies where his wife is Director, while filing nomination from Chandni Chowk seat this year.
Shooting off a complaint to EC on Saturday, senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy demanded criminal proceedings for the offence of perjury and other related IPC offences against Sibal for his failure to disclose crucial information about the earnings of his spouse.Incidentally, it was Sibal who lodged the complaint against Modi accusing him of lying on oath about his marital status during each Assembly election in Gujarat.Responding to Swamy’s allegations, Sibal outrightly rejected the charge. He said, “If he (Swamy) finds any assets of my wife not disclosed by me, then I will give it to him without any charge.”
Swamy in his complaint said, “Kapil Sibal, candidate from Chandni Chowk lok Sabha constituency on behalf of the Congress Party has, in his nomination paper, willfully failed to disclose in his Affidavit of assets and liabilities, companies which are owned and administered by his wife — specifically three companies — Arshiya Exports Private ltd which is now one of the biggest meat (cow meat included) exporters in Asia and is located somewhere near Delhi, Arihant Farmhouses Private ltd, and Hacker Electronics Private ltd.”
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs records show that Promila Sibal holds the post of Director in the above three companies since 1981 in case of the first company and 1987 with regard to rest of the companies. Swamy urged the EC to take notice of the “non-disclosure” as amounting to an offence of perjury and asked the complaint to be forwarded to the Magistrate for relevant action. It said, “The failure to disclose these companies specially since they are of substantial assets, is a serious perjury under the criminal law and therefore you may please forward this complaint with EC’s recommendation to the Magistrate concerned to take cognisance ad issue due process.”
Addressing a press conference on Friday, Sibal said, “In elections in 2002, 2007 and 2012 he (Modi) did not disclose his marital status which is required by the law… So we asked the EC to take appropriate action against him.”
The 65-year-old lawyer-turned politician had in his nomination papers shown that he and his wife Promila together have movable and immovable assets of more than Rs110 crore. His individual immovable assets were valued at over Rs60.5 crore which included a house in Maharani Bagh worth over Rs44 crore, a plot in Kant Enclave in Faridabad, plots in Gurgaon, flat in Central Park in Gurgaon valued at over Rs12 crore, besides property in Bangalore, Chandigarh and ludhiana.
His wife’s income for the last financial year has been shown as Rs28.73 lakh. Besides movable assets worth Rs13.38 crore, she is shown in the affidavit to own a house in New Friends Colony having an estimated market value of Rs28 crore and an investment of Rs17 lakh as advance for purchase of residential plot.