Jain appears before I-T dept, AAP claims ‘vendetta’

Health Minister Satyendra Jain on Tuesday appeared before the Income Tax (I-T) Department, after being summoned in connection with a tax evasion probe against certain Kolkata-based firms. Jain was questioned for over three hours at the Central Revenue Building here.

Afterwards, Jain slammed the I-T department's move to summon him as "a witness" and said he was the Centre's "latest victim of vendetta politics".

He said the allegations against him do not hold water as he had made all necessary disclosures in his I-T returns and election affidavits. "It is a conspiracy to malign my political career," Jain said in a press conference at the AAP office.

AAP leader Sanjay Singh termed Jain's summoning as "harassment" and emphasised that the party and the government "stand by him". The I-T department had last month asked Jain, a key member of the AAP Cabinet, to appear before the Investigating Officer on October 4 and furnish personal financial details and ITRs for the last four years.

Meanwhile, Jain and other AAP leaders once again faced a slipper attack by a woman over CM Arvind Kejriwal’s remarks on cross-LoC anti-terror surgical strike by army. However, the slipper just hit the vehicle in which Jain was travelling along with Singh and Ashutosh.