Swiss move linked to I-T raids on Bishnoi’s assets

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 9

The Swiss Government’s public notice for sharing of details with India about Swiss bank accounts and other financial assets of Kuldeep Bishnoi and his wife Renuka is linked to the income raids in July last year on the premises connected with the Congress leader.

Soon after the raids that were conducted at 13 premises in Haryana, Delhi and Himachal Pradesh, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) had revealed that the I-T investigations had “successfully lifted the mask and has detected undisclosed foreign assets of the said persons of more than Rs 200 crore, apart from domestic tax evasion of more than Rs 30 crore which may, inter alia, lead to severe criminal consequences under the Black Money Act, 2015, apart from action under the Income Tax Act, 1961.”

The I-T raids had come close on the heels of the Lok Sabha poll last year in which Bishnoi’s son Bhavya Bishnoi was pitched in a high-profile electoral battle against Brijendra Singh of the BJP and Dushyant Chautala of the JJP. The BJP eventually won that election by a comfortable margin while Bhavya Bishnoi had finished third after Dushyant.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha poll, Bishnoi’s Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) had contested the poll in alliance with the BJP.

However, Bishnoi, who contested from Hisar, lost the election to Dushyant of the INLD at that time. The HJC’s other candidate, Sushil Indora, too, lost to Charanjit Singh Rori of the INLD.

Losing both seats despite a strong wave in favour of Narendra Modi had cost Bishnoi dearly as the BJP severed its electoral ties with the HJC before the Assembly poll held in October 2014.

In the Assembly poll, even though all other candidates, including his elder brother Chander Mohan (Nalwa Assembly seat), lost the election, Bishnoi managed to win from his traditional Adampur seat and his wife was elected from Hansi.

Three years after the 2014 Assembly poll, Bishnoi had announced the merger of his HJC with the Congress.

Bishnoi is the younger son of former Congress strongman Bhajan Lal who remained Chief Minister of the state from 1979 to 1986 and then again from 1991 to 1996.

Bhajan Lal was state Congress chief when Haryana went to the Assembly polls in February 2005 and was a formidable candidate for the post of the Chief Minister again.

However, the central leadership of the Congress selected Bhupinder Singh Hooda for the coveted post.

Though Bhajan Lal’s elder son Chander Mohan was Deputy CM, Bishnoi never reconciled with Hooda and went on to form his own political party HJC on December 2, 2007.

Rs 200 cr undisclosed foreign assets

• Kuldeep Bishnoi was the CM face for the HJC-BJP alliance from 2011 till 2014 Lok Sabha poll
• The two parties severed ties in August 2014 after Bishnoi’s HJC failed to win any of the two seats given to him
• Bishnoi’s son Bhavya contested against BJP’s Brijender Singh and JJP’s Dushyant Chautala in 2019 Lok Sabha poll
• In July 2019, raids on 13 premises linked with Bishnoi; undisclosed foreign assets worth Rs 200 crore detected