Congress stumps CBDT with originals

Congress stumps CBDT with originals

FPJ BureauUpdated: Wednesday, May 29, 2019, 12:18 AM IST
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New Delhi: In a counter to the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) claim on March 22 that xerox copies of former Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa showing huge payments to central BJP leaders were useless for forensic probe, the Congress on Monday produced the original pages of the diary that were seized in an Income Tax raid in Bengaluru.

Senior Congress leader and lawyer Kapil Sibal displayed the diary at a Press conference here that has detailed notings of payments of Rs 1800 crore made to not only BJP leaders but also the judges. He said: “There can be only two aspects of this story:

Either the contents of the diary are true or not true. If the contents are true, it is a huge scandal requiring a probe.”
“If it is not true, FIR should be lodged against Yeddyurappa. Law is clear that he needs to be questioned on why he made false entries to defame his own party leaders. He should be arrested for forgery.

Imagine what would have happened if such a diary were seized from an opposition leader, Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax officials would have raided all those named in the diary. The Prime Minister would have started giving lectures on corruption. Now he won’t say anything.”

He urged the newly constituted Lokpal should take note of this diary and summon the leaders whose names had been mentioned in the diary. He said the Congress had pointed out existence of the diary last month and also in 2017 that showed payments made by Yeddyurappa while the BJP kept rubbishing the charge.

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Sibal said the CBDT had claimed in a statement that seizure of some loose sheets of papers were made during a raid on Congress minister DK Shivakumar but they were xerox copies and the originals were not found and as such CFSL, Hyderabad, wanted the originals if the documents are to be verified for any action.

“The same loose sheets prima-facie appear to be of a doubtful nature and were given by the person (Shivakumar) who was being raided for tax violations,” the CBDT had then said.  Sibal said he was now producing the original diary and the CBDT cannot run away from getting it examined as it is a clear case of corruption.

The Congress leader pointed out the irony that the amounts were being delivered to the BJP central committee members at a time when Narendra Modi, the then Gujarat CM, and the BJP were orchestrating the anti-corruption movement against UPA 2 and preparing for the general election in 2014.

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