Firm linked to Captain Amarinder Singh son bought London house for £1.8m: Income Tax dept

Amarinder Singh told The Indian Express that the entire documentation was “false and fabricated”. He said he would take legal action to get the “motivated” complaint quashed by a higher court.

In June 2015, The Indian Express had reported that Amarinder and his wife Preneet Kaur, facing scrutiny by tax officials, were sent fresh notices after the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) received information from France that their son, Raninder, was the settler of Jacaranda Trust, the beneficial owner of several BVI-registered entities namely, Chillingham Holdings Limited; Limerlock International Limited, Mulwala Holdings Limited and Allworth Ventures Holding Limited.

Included in the Income Tax complaint filed in the Ludhiana court is a document dated September 1, 2005. It is purportedly a record of a meeting between an HSBC relationship manager with Raninder and his father-in-law Kuldip Dhingra.

Raninder told the IT department that this meeting never took place. The document carrying his denial is attached to the complaint.

Recording his meeting with the client, the manager (whose name is not given in the document) wrote that “the meeting got off to a rocky start as Kuldip, on behalf of his son-in-law, said he objected strongly to the way in which we had asked such detailed questions… and that he was sure if they had gone to a real Swiss bank like UBS or CS, such questions would never have arisen.”

The meeting was recorded as a “follow up call on R Singh following our meetings in London and Delhi last time. His father-in-law Kuldip Dhingra also attended the meeting,” the document states. Under the client’s name, it notes “Chillingham Holdings Ltd (5091445944)”. The place of the meeting is recorded simply as “New.”

The manager, the document states, records that “since our last meeting, we have established a Trust and three BVI companies, one in which to receive funds, one which will hold the UK property and one for holding a portfolio with us”.

The document states “an offer has been made and accepted on a property at Trevor Street, London for just under GBP 1.8 Mio. Exchange of contracts took place in July and completion is set for end-October… We have already received GBP 2 million into the account to cover the house purchase and associated works. A further GBP 3 million will be remitted to us before the end of the year, about USD 5.5 million, which is to be invested in SIS.”

Amarinder questioned the authenticity of this document and showed two letters from the HSBC saying that neither Raninder nor Preneet Kaur ever held accounts in the bank.

Signed by the Managing Director of HSBC Robert J.Du Lessis and director Stephen Barney, a letter, dated September 6, 2011, declares that “Mr Raninder Singh is not an account holder nor was an account holder of any bank account with HSBC Pvt Bank (Suisse) SA. It is further certified that he is not and never was an authorised signatory on any accounts held with the bank.”

Raninder submitted the same letter to the IT department in 2011 and it is a part of the annexures with the complaint.

Amarinder said he had submitted these documents to the Income Tax authorities in 2011. “That is why they had stopped pursuing the case,” he said, adding, “Akalis and BJP are raking it up with snap polls in mind in June or July.”

The IT complaint notes that information on these was received by the CBDT “from competent authorities” in Paris on June 28, 2011.