Swiss Leaks: Income Tax moves court to prosecute Congress leader Amarinder Singh for ‘foreign assets’

Calling the complaint “malafide and politically motivated,” Amarinder Singh today said the Income Tax Department had “failed to dig out any proof’’ of his alleged foreign assets.

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But the complaint filed on November 18 details the substantial data that was received by FT&TR (Foreign Tax and Tax Research) division from 2011 on, first from France and, subsequently, from replies received from Dubai, Switzerland and the British Virgin Islands.

As reported by The Indian Express on June 9, 2015, the tax chase led authorities from the HSBC account to various entities incorporated by Amarinder Singh’s son, Raninder Singh, namely Jacaranda Trust and the Mulwala Holding Limited where the former Chief Minister was also a beneficiary holder.

The Indian Express report on HSBC account on June 9, 2015.

Amarinder Singh was also found to be an alleged beneficiary of foreign bank accounts maintained by the HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) SA, Geneva and HSBC Financial Services (Middle East) Limited Dubai.

The complaint, for which the prosecution has now being filed under various sections of the Income Tax Act and the Indian Penal Code against Amarinder Singh for allegedly suppressing facts and filing false statements on oath, also alleges that Jacaranda Trust was the beneficial owner of a string of BVI off-shore entities. These are Chillingham Holdings Limited; Allworth Venture Holdings; Limerlock International Limited and Mulwala Holdings Limited.

Interestingly, while there had been no account balance shown against the name of Preneet Kaur as far as the HSBC account details are concerned, IT authorities obtained details of the bank balances maintained by HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) for the four companies in 2006-2007.

Together, the case of the Income Tax is that three bank accounts in the names of Mulwala Holdings; Limerlock International; Chillingham Holdings and Allworth Venture Holdings total $61.7 lakh (Rs 41.9 crore at the present exchange rate).

Properties held by these Trusts — of which Raninder Singh is the settler and Amarinder Singh a beneficiary — have also been a focus of the probe.

One Dubai-based property was registered in the name of Mulwala Holdings and the case of the IT team is that it was subsequently transferred in 2007 to another off-shore entity, Ferx Asset Holdings Limited, and that the original request for this transfer was made by Amarinder Singh himself. Both Amarinder Singh and before him, Raninder Singh, in response to summons and notices sent by the Department said they were ignorant about the existence of any of these foreign assets and entities.

The complaint states, “Men may lie but the documents and the facts and circumstances do not…In the instant case, the documents and information received from the competent foreign authorities which are in the possession/custody of the complainant would make it unambiguously clear that the accused, further beneficial owner of/associated with the various foreign entities was in complete know how of the transactions carried out through these entities/trusts…”

In a statement, Amarinder Singh alleged a conspiracy and said that he would request the court to summon the Finance Minister and other senior officials of the IT department. “I have known about this conspiracy for the past two years and was waiting for this opportunity to get all these people on the stand”, he said. “Why did the IT not file any complaint in the past two years instead of waiting for the elections,” said Amarinder, adding that the charges were fabricated. He said such vindictive moves would backfire on the Modi government at the Centre, as well as on the Badals in the state.