Chandigarh: Congress candidate from Amritsar Lok Sabha seat Amarinder Singh on Monday served legal notice on BJP leader Subramanian Swamy for his "malicious statements" alleging that he had committed "perjury" by not disclosing the foreign bank accounts of his wife and son in his nominations papers.
Swamy had last week alleged that the former Punjab chief minister had not mentioned these details in the affidavit filed with the returning officer at the time of filing his nomination papers for contesting from Amritsar.
Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley is fighting his maiden Lok Sabha polls from Amritsar and is pitted against Singh, the Congress MLA from Patiala.
Singh, in a release, said that the legal notice served through his advocate has asked Swamy to tender a public and unconditional apology withdrawing and clarifying the "false allegations" made by him within 15 days of its receipt.
The notice also asked Swamy to cease and desist from the date of receipt of such notice, from issuing/making any further such /similar statements against Singh.
The notice said the statements made by Swamy individually as well as collectively constituted "deliberate malicious representations" by him impinging upon the character, integrity and honesty of Singh.
"These false statements of far-reaching import, so lightly made by you, have directly caused untold harm and damage to the name, reputation and public image of my client (Singh), especially given the ongoing elections," the lawyer's notice read.
It said, "....The said statements are now in public domain, having been televised, carried in the newsprint as well as been transmitted via the internet.
"....By such statements you have at different points of time willfully caused persons who are reading such statements, the voters of Amritsar, right thinking members of society and the Indian public at large to believe that my client is guilty of the offence of perjury under Indian criminal law.
"That my client has knowingly concealed material facts in his nomination papers filed with the office of the Election Commission. That my client has consequently lied to the electorate....," in Amritsar, it said.
Addressing an election rally at Barmer in Rajasthan last week, BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi had taken a dig at Singh on the foreign bank account issue.
Modi had targeted Singh for allegedly not divulging details of the foreign bank accounts in his affidavit and demanded reply from the party.
