Cong moves EC over Jaitley graft remarks on Virbhadra Singh

The Congress party has moved the Election Commission against BJP leader Arun Jaitley's remarks at a press conference in which he had come down heavily on party veteran Virbhadra Singh.

In a letter to Chief Election Commissioner V S Sampath on Thursday, the AICC legal department demanded that "immediate necessary action" should be taken against Jaitley and the BJP for making such a "distorted and false allegations" against Congress party and Singh.

"Such statements publicly made in the press conference, as reported by the media are in violation of the Model Code of Conduct - the guidance of political parties and candidates as prescribed and notified by the Election Commission," the party said in the complaint.

Addressing the press conference in Shimla on Tuesday, Jaitley had alleged that Singh had altered his income tax account books from 2008 onwards to show a forged, back-dated contract and a highly inflated income of around Rs 6.5 crore.

"This is a case of bribery, conversion of bribe money through money-laundering into real income, forgery by back-dating an agreement," Jaitley had said, maintaining that this was not just a tax evasion case.

Taking strong note of Jaitley's accusations, the party told the Commission that the BJP leader was "not competent and authorised" to make such a statement to "malign the Congress party and its leader".

"Statements made by the senior BJP leader are totally imaginary and based on his own assumptions and presumptions. Such malicious and defamatory allegations are not at all permissible in law and during the operation of Model Code of Conduct.

"It is a matter within the jurisdiction of Election Commission to take appropriate action on such violations," K C Mittal, Secretary of AICC department, said in the written complaint.

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