New Delhi, May 13 (Zee News): P Chidambaram on Sunday hit back at Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman over her remarks describing the chargesheets against senior Congress leader's family members as the 'Nawaz Sharif moment' of the grand old party, a reference to Pakistan Supreme Court's decision disqualifying its former PM from holding office because of non-disclosure of assets and income earned abroad.
Taking a dig at the BJP leader, Chidambaram tweeted, "Nirmala Sitharaman has been removed from the post of Defence Minister and appointed as an attorney at the Income Tax department."
Addressing the press in the national capital, the Union Minister had said, "The parallels cannot be missed out in this case. I am wondering if, for Congress party in India, we are seeing the Nawaz Sharif moment."
Sitharaman had also asked if Rahul Gandhi would investigate the issue involving his party's senior leader. The Congress party president, incidentally who is also out on bail on some financial transactions which are questionable, should certainly comment and tell the entire party and people of India whether he is going to investigate this, she had said. The BJP leader had added that the law on black money was brought in by the Modi government because it had pledged before the last Lok Sabha elections to fight unaccounted for money held in India and abroad.
On the other hand, BJP president Amit Shah too cited the four chargesheets filed by the I-T department against Chidambaram's family members to allege they had illegal assets worth 3 billion dollars.
Chidambaram retorted to Shah's charge in a tweet, urging the BJP to bring back black money stashed abroad - as promised by the party before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
The I-T department on May 11, 2018, filed chargesheets against Chidambaram's wife Nalini, son Karti, daughter-in-law Srinidhi and a firm under the Black Money Act for allegedly not disclosing their foreign assets.
The chargesheets or prosecution complaints have been filed by the I-T department before a special court in Chennai under Section 50 of the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015, officials said, PTI reported.
Nalini Chidambaram, Karti and Srinidhi and a firm linked to Karti have been accused of not disclosing, either partly or fully, immovable assets such as one at Barton, Cambridge, UK, worth Rs 5.37 crore, property worth Rs 80 lakh in the same country and assets worth Rs 3.28 crore in the US.
The former finance minister's family members have said the I-Tax department chargesheets against them under the black money law were "baseless allegations" as the overseas investments under question had been reflected in their IT returns.