New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday hit back at former finance minister P. Chidambaram for defending his son Karti, accusing him of trying to paint the lawful proceedings as a ‘political witch-hunt’.
“It’s a strange comment coming from P. Chidambaram because if my memory serves me correctly, the questions on Karti Chidambaram’s role for involvement in some alleged scam come back during the UPA time when he was the minister,” BJP leader Nalin Kohli said.
“At that time, he said before the Parliament that law would take its own course. Now when the law is proceeding for the matter that had arose at that time, is that suppose to mean because he is Chidambaram’s son, no action should be taken? No investigation should be done?… There is perhaps some kind of fear that may be that something is not correct in the deals of Karti Chidambaram and, therefore, paint it as a political witch-hunt so that before the truth comes out,” he added.
Rubbishing allegations of amassment of wealth by Chidambaram, P. Chidambaram today hit out at the Centre and said that he was the real target and not his son.
He said that the news report, which was containing wild and reckless allegations against Karti, was a planted story.
“Karti runs a legitimate business, apart from managing inherited property. He has been an income tax assessee for many years. He has duly and regularly filed his income tax return, including a statement of assets and liabilities, every year. The assessments have been completed upto AY 2013-14 by the Income-tax department,” he said in a statement.
Karti has reportedly amassed a huge amount of wealth through his dealings between 2006-2014, when his father P. Chidambaram was a cabinet minister in the UPA regime.
According to reports, the investigators of the case have found the details of Karti’s investments during their probe of the alleged acquisition of telecommunication company Aircel by Malaysian company Maxis.
ANI