The family of former Union Minister of Finance P Chidambaram on Saturday said the chargesheets that the Income Tax Department filed against them on Friday for allegedly not declaring their foreign assets contain “baseless allegations”, PTI reported.
The tax department’s chargesheets name P Chidambaram, his wife Nalini Chidambaram, son Karti Chidambaram and daughter-in-law Srinidhi Chidambaram, and accuse them of violating the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015. The charges were filed in a special court in Chennai.
The family claimed on Saturday that their overseas investments were mentioned in their income tax returns for 2016-’17. “The Income Tax returns are prepared and filed on the advice of the chartered accountants,” the Chidambarams said in a statement. “The investments in question were made through bank remittances. They were duly disclosed in the returns of income filed under Section 139 of the Income Tax Act for the relevant assessment year.” They said they would oppose the charges “in accordance with law”.
Nalini Chidambaram, Karti Chidambaram, Srinidhi Chidambaram and a firm called Chess Global have been accused of allegedly not disclosing, either partly or fully, assets worth more than Rs 6 crore in the United Kingdom, and assets worth Rs 3.28 crore in the United States. Karti Chidambaram is a co-owner of Chess Global.
In April, the Madras High Court refused to restrain the tax department from filing cases against the Chidambarams for alleged money laundering. This came after the department had issued notices to all three for alleged non-disclosure of overseas properties and bank accounts.
The court is expected to hear the case on June 11.
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