Punjab Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh on Sunday dismissed the income tax department complaint against his son Raninder Singh in a Ludhiana court as a “classic case of political vendetta borne out of bruised egos and a haunting memory of a humiliating defeat”.
Read more: Capt Amarinder’s son gets notice for lying about foreign bank accounts
Reacting to the complaint, Amarinder maintained that he had full faith in the judiciary and expressed confidence that his son will come out clean in the case after the due judicial process.
“It is not for the first time that the issue had been raked up. They have been doing it for the last two years since my Amritsar win and every time they tried it, they failed miserably and will fail once again,” he said.
Questioning the timing of the complaint, he said the way it was circulated to the media proves beyond any doubt the real intentions of the people at whose behest it was being done.
“Otherwise, how come the copies of the complaint were circulated among the media almost at the same time while it was being lodged in the court,” he asked. “They knew that the complaint will not hold any ground in the judicial process and therefore decided to go for a concurrent media trial in an obvious bid to defame me when elections in Punjab are less than a year away and the SAD-BJP alliance is headed for a complete rout,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}“Otherwise, how come the copies of the complaint were circulated among the media almost at the same time while it was being lodged in the court,” he asked. “They knew that the complaint will not hold any ground in the judicial process and therefore decided to go for a concurrent media trial in an obvious bid to defame me when elections in Punjab are less than a year away and the SAD-BJP alliance is headed for a complete rout,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}“I thought Arun Jaitley (union finance minister) had put his defeat behind him and decided to move on with the important portfolio he is holding despite his humiliating electoral defeat, but I was wrong as he has not been able to forget that defeat. It seems that every time he recalls the 2014 April of Amritsar his bruised ego haunts him and it concludes in an IT notice/case against my one or the other family member,” Amarinder said.
The former chief minister said he was not the only one in the Congress who was being targeted by the BJP government at the Centre, particularly its finance minister. “This list is long and it tends to get longer with passage of time,” he said, while pointing out names of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, vice- president Rahul Gandhi, P Chidambaram and Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh.