NEW DELHI, (PTI) — Vishwanath Pratap Singh, president of Janata Dal, has virtually challenged Indian government to take to court the issue of his son Ajeya Singh’s alleged foreign bank accounts.
Asked about the documents laid in parliament by minister of state for finance Eduardo Faleiro, he told a press conference here “Let them lay it in court and I have put them in the waste paper basket.”
However, he refused to comment on sling persistently questioned by newsmen on his stand on the issue.
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had said the nation has a right to know whether the money in the bank account in St Kitts was a result of “certain deals or from elsewhere.”
“The question should have been posed whether this money was by way of Some commission or whether there was something deeper” said while addressing the congress (I) party in parliament.
Referring to the debate in parliament on the issue, he said while the legal issues and implicators had to be looked into, those involved very clearly had to do a lot of explaining to the people of this country.
The nation will not get carried away by hollow protestations of innocence and cleanliness, he said adding there was no doubt that the accounts of certain individuals existed.
“The question was who gave the money and for what purpose and where the money came from,” he said, without mentioning the name of V.P. Singh or his son.
On Oct. 13, the government had asked Ajeya to furnish more information regarding his account in the First Trust Corporation in St. Kitts Bank.
There has been no dis crimination whatsoever in dealing with Ajeya Singh. “He would be dealt with in the same manner as those falling within the existing parameters for holding foreign accounts.”
Ajeya Singh said following the publications of certain documents in the daily “The Hindu’ about the controversial Bofors gun deal. The government had chosen the path of verifications, ete, but in the case of the “forged” St. Kitts banks documents (about his alleged secret accounts). “The government chose first to threaten me with arrest and later sent its team of officials to verify the authenticity of the newspaper publications.”
In a letter to the president, copies of which were released to the press, Ajeya Singh said, “I do not seek any mercy but only equality of treatment. By equality of tratment I do not mean that I may be given the same soft treatment which was given to Ajitabh Bachchan, Hinduja, etc. but that they should be subjected, in national interest, to the same rigour I have been subjected to.”
Rumours of secret bank accounts held by him led Ajeya Singh to leave the United States where he was settled and present himself to the authorities for investigations. In an unprecedented step, Singh, a nonresident Indian declared all his financial assets publicly.
Rumours of secret accounts have also been rife against Ajitabh Bachchan,
Article extracted from this publication >> October 20, 1989
