According to media reports, Income Tax department carried out raids on some companies linked to Kapil Sibal. Last week, CBI also searched the premises of World Window Impex India with respect to the transfer of 100 percent share holding of a subsidiary, Grand Castello Pvt Ltd to Kapil Sibal and his wife at throw away price of one lakh rupees. The report further suggests that Kapil Sibal also extended a loan of Rs 52 crore to Grand Castello. The Grand Castello had no other business. It only owned a prime property on Hailey Road in central Delhi. The property’s market value was 89 crore. According to TOI report, “The property was transferred to Sibal and his wife through share swap in 2016-17 for Rs 1 lakh and a loan of Rs 51.2 crore.” The report further adds, if former minister and his wife had purchased the property then tax and stamp duty would be due.
Now, IT department is examining the case.
Earlier, the BJP had accused Kapil Sibal of using those companies for committing financial wrongdoings. In March, BJP minister launched blistering attack on Kapil Sibal on the basis of an opindia report. According to OpIndia report, Kapil Sibal had allegedly acquired land worth tens of crores in Delhi for merely Rs. 1 lakh from some Piyoosh Goyal, who is reportedly under the CBI scanner for money laundering. The report further stated that Kapil Sibal acquired the land by becoming the owner of a company called Grand Castello. It must be remembered that OpIndia had sought Sibal’s views before running the story, a request Sibal ignored. However, once the story was published and picked up by the BJP, Kapil Sibal took a u-turn and admitted that he had bought the company Grand Castello. A few months ago, he had denied being the director or the owner of the company when approached by a South African journalist Craig McKune.
The BJP picked up this issue very early but mainstream media turned a blind eye to the story despite opindia providing solid proofs to backup their claim. It would be interesting to see how long they are going to maintain stoic silence on the sins of Congress leaders, as the IT department has begun its investigation in the case. Kapil Sibal is the latest senior Congress leader under investigation in corruption case. Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are out on bail in National Herald scam case. In the National Herald scam, the Congress top brass, especially Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, are believed to have minted millions from an ailing news agency. National Herald had become defunct by 2008. According to the court proceedings, the accused are allegedly charged with the following provisions:
- Misappropriation of property
- Criminal breach of trust
- Cheating
- Criminal conspiracy under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code.
Chidambaram who, along with his son, is also out on bail. Things haven’t exactly been smooth for ex-Home and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram since the Congress’ loss in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. P. Chidambaram and his family are facing probes in many corruption cases such as Aircel-Maxis scam, INX media scam and the AirAsia scam. Chidambaram’s name cropped up in all these scam in some way or the other. In a major development in INX media case, the CBI on Tuesday pressed for custodial interrogation of former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram.
Their entire top leadership of the Congress is out on bail on some charge or the other. Their top leaders hardly have any credibility and that’s why the party is also losing its credibility and increasingly becoming irrelevant in Indian politics.