Kailash Gahlot rejects all claims as false,says 60-hour operation hit government work

NEW DELHI: Delhi transport minister Kailash Gahlot has called the claims of recovery by the income tax department a “deliberate act of spreading disinformation with a view to cover up the abysmal failure” of the tax authorities during the “politically motivated” raid at different premises linked to him. The statement issued by his legal team also described as false the claims that benami property worth over Rs 100 crore has been recovered, adding that the search was “a complete failure during which no seizures were made.”

“A falsehood being planted is that benami properties worth Rs 100 crore were found during raids while as a matter of fact not a single document was recovered for any property from the residence of the minister,” the statement said.

The statement blamed the Central government for the raids. “All stories being planted by the IT department and other agencies working at the behest of the Central government will be strongly countered on facts and a befitting legal response will be given to the attempts to harass and intimidate a law-abiding citizen and an elected representative,” the statement read.


The legal team has pointed out that Gahlot was engaged in the business — Brisk Infrastructure and Developers Pvt Ltd and Corporate International Financial Services Limited — till he filed his nomination as an assembly candidate in early 2015. “Once engaged in public service, he resigned from the directorship of these companies. He has no direct control over the working of these companies. No documents of these companies were found at his residence,” said the statement.

The legal team has alleged that fanciful rumours are being circulated to divert public attention in a desperate attempt to browbeat their elected representatives. “Rumours of the recovery of Rs 35 lakh unaccounted money is false. The truth is that a sum of Rs 11 lakh in cash was found at the premises of Gahlot which is duly accounted for. Another sum of Rs 24 lakhs was admittedly related to the family of the minister’s elder brother,” the statement said.

About the alleged recovery of jewellery worth Rs 2 crores which is purportedly unaccounted for, the statement said: “The truth is that jewellery belonging to the minister’s wife is worth Rs 28 lakh and it is duly accounted for and was only found along with jewellery belonging to the mother-in-law of the minister which is again duly accounted for and worth Rs 41 lakh.”

The sons of the minister’s elder brother are majors and have their own separate business with which the minister has nothing to do, the statement said.

The statement also pointed out that “the IT officials did not spare even the children of the minister and searched their textbooks, school copies, drawing books and bed of the children in anticipation and eagerness of recovering crores of cash, which all proved to be imaginary in the end.”

The legal team has flagged that the tax authorities unnecessarily spent around 60 hours at the minister’s flat and disrupted the working of the Delhi government with Gahlot holding five portfolios.