ED issues fresh summons to Amarinder Singh's son in FEMA case

NEW DELHI: Enforcement Directorate (ED) wants to question former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh's son Raninder Singh before he leaves for Rio Olympics starting from August 5. The agency on Tuesday issued fresh summons asking Singh junior to appear before the ED’s zonal office at Jalandhar.

ED sleuths suspect that Raninder is trying to evade questioning after he failed to turn up before the agency on June 16 and sought more time on health grounds. Authorities say that they want to examine him before he leaves India and has asked him to appear on July 14. The agency is probing alleged forex contraventions and holding of untaxed foreign assets in his name.

The agency move may have political ramifications ahead of the upcoming Punjab assembly polls. According to ED, Raninder has also been instructed to bring financial statements and copy of his passport. A person close to Raninder told ET that they have not received fresh summons of ED yet.

Agency sources however said that they want to examine him regarding alleged movement of funds to Switzerland and creation of a trust and subsidiaries in the tax haven of British Virgin Islands. The case against Raninder came to light after Income Tax received information that he is allegedly holding the offshore account in the alpine nation as part of details received by the Central Board of Direct Taxes from its French counterparts in 2011.

The tax authorities during its probe also learnt that he had reportedly parked money abroad in contravention of Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). Income Tax complaint before the court also claimed that an offshore company, allegedly linked to Raninder, bought a house for 1.85 million pounds.

ED investigators claimed that they have collected the documents from RBI and a Punjab court where they suspect FEMA violations and needs to examine Amarinder’s son. Raninder had earlier said he did not have anything to hide and was willing to cooperate with the probe.