The Enforcement Directorate summoned Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s son Raninder Singh in an alleged illegal foreign funds case, The Tribune reported on Friday. He was asked to appear before the agency on October 27.
The summons are related to the alleged violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) by Raninder Singh. He had been called by the Enforcement Directorate in 2016 too, and was asked to explain the movement of funds to Switzerland and creation of a trust and subsidiaries in British Virgin Islands.
“We will examine the summons and accordingly put up our case,” Raninder Singh’s lawyer Jaiveer Shergill told the newspaper.
The Enforcement Directorate summoned Raninder Singh after the Income Tax filed a complaint against him in a court in Punjab’s Ludhiana city, according to Hindustan Times. Tax officials alleged that he had lied under oath about his trust in the British Virgin Islands. They also accused Raninder Singh of misguiding the agency by claiming to not possess documents of his family’s trusts abroad.
Officials of the Enforcement Directorate sought to examine tax documents in three cases against the Punjab chief minister and his son, according to The Tribune. Their investigation was, however, stopped after Raninder Singh claimed that the agency had no locus standi in the case as it had not served him a notice.
Unidentified Congress leaders questioned the timing of the summons. “These might have come now probably because of the tough stand that Captain Amarinder has taken against the Centre over the farm Acts,” they told the newspaper. Earlier this week, Punjab had approved three bills to counter the Centre’s farm laws.
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