Only plaint against Capt, not chargesheet: Cong leaders

CHANDIGARH: Punjab Congress leaders on Saturday said the income tax department had filed a complaint in a Ludhiana court on Thursday and “not a charge sheet” against Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) chief Capt Amarinder Singh in connection with the ongoing probe into the alleged untaxed foreign assets.

Senior Congress leaders, Lal Singh, Sunil Jakhar and Kewal Dhillon, quoting Capt Amarinder Singh’s counsel and senior Supreme Court advocate Atul Nanda, said: “Contrary to certain media reports, the complaint filed by the I-T department in a Ludhiana court is not a charge sheet. It is just a complaint, which the court is yet to take cognisance of.”

According to the Press Trust of India report, the I-T department had filed the prosecution complaint (equivalent to a police charge sheet) in a competent court in Ludhiana on Thursday under different sections of the I-T Act.

In a statement, the Congress leaders alleged that it was a “planned conspiracy” to defame the Punjab Congress president. They accused Union finance minister Arun Jaitley of deliberately leaking the I-T department complaint to the media as a ‘charge sheet’ to mislead the people.

“Thousands of complaints are filed in courts everyday but none is released to the media and projected as charge sheets,” they said, pointing out that Captain Amarinder had on Friday himself rejected the charges of foreign assets and the filing of the I-T complaint as malafide and politically motivated.