'Will Rahul probe Chidambaram's foreign assets matter?', asks Nirmala Sitharaman

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday while addressing media said that the Congress party's president Rahul Gandhi who himself is out on bail on a financial matter, should certainly comment and tell people of India if he is going to investigate on this senior leader of the party P Chidambaram not having disclosed income held abroad.

Hiting out at former Finance Minister P Chidambaram Nirmala Sitharaman said,''For sometime now we have been hearing a lot of action by the I-T authorities against former finance minister P Chidambaram and his family. In India, for the Congress Party this is the Nawaz Sharif moment.''

''In pursuit of black money, time was given time to disclose assets which are held and bring it to public notice, this act provides for, if convicted provides 120% tax & penalty on those undisclosed assets & income, and when proven invites jail term,'' Nrmala Sitharaman

''The Congress party's president who is also out on bail on a financial matter, he should certainly comment and tell people of India if he is going to investigate on this senior leader of the party(P Chidambaram) not having disclosed income held abroad,'' Nirmala Sitharaman said.

Speaking on on former Pak PM Nawaz Sharif's statement, Sitharaman said,''It's a serious disclosure. Hasn't India been following it? Saying that we strongly believe that the handlers of the 26/11 offences were in Pakistan. This only proves India's stand has been right all through the way.''

The Income Tax department had on Friday filed four charge-sheets against former Union finance minister P Chidambaram, his wife Nalini, son Karti and daughter-in-law Srinidhi under the Black Money Act for allegedly not disclosing their foreign assets.

Nalini Chidambaram, Karti and Srinidhi and a firm linked to Karti (Chess Global) have been charged for allegedly not disclosing, either partly or fully, immovable assets like the one at Barton, Cambridge in the 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, ITD officials had said.