Arvind Kejriwal pays Rs 9.27 lakh tax dues

NEW DELHI: Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday returned dues worth Rs 9.27 lakh to the government to settle the issue of his resignation from the Indian Revenue Service (IRS).

But he sought to make a point by addressing his cheque of Rs 9,27,787 directly to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, along with a covering letter saying that he was paying back the dues in protest and not conceding any mistake on his part.

He also asked Singh not to “trouble” his six friends, including Magsaysay award winner Harish Hande, who had loaned him money to pay off his dues to the government.

In his letter to Singh, he said, “I am enclosing a cheque for Rs 9,27,787. This does not mean that I have accepted the mistake. When I don’t know what was the mistake I committed, then there is no question of accepting it.

“I am returning the dues in protest. I appeal to you to instruct the finance ministry to accept my resignation. Once my resignation is accepted, I retain my right to approach the court to reclaim the dues,” he said in the four-page letter.

“The whole government machinery is after Team Anna. I appeal to you with folded hands that your government should not trouble those people who have given me loan," he said.

The Congress took affront to Kejriwal’s act of directly taking up his dues issues with the prime minister. “The letter from Kejriwal to the prime minister was absolutely unnecessary. It is an insult to the office of the prime minister. He should have written to his departmental superior instead,” said party spokeperson Rashid Alvi.

Meanwhile, with Anna Hazare set to break his maun vrat (fast of silence) on Friday, the Congress on Thursday asked Team Anna to clarify their stand on member Prashant Bhushan’s statement favouring plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir.