We will reply to IT notice on Rs 10 lakh cheque: Cong

Congress today cautioned against doing "politics" on the donation issue even as it acknowledged that it has received a cheque donation of Rs 10 lakh from a company and will respond to an Income Tax department notice in this regard.
Party Treasuer Motilal Vora said that the particular company has given a cheque donation of Rs 10 lakh to Congress in November last year with a cover letter furnishing all details like PAN number.
He said that since a notice has been given, Congress will reply to the IT department regarding the donation received.
The notice was issued on February 9, a day before the counting of votes in Delhi Assembly elections was taken up which the AAP had swept.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which was hit by a controversy over a donation of Rs 2 crore it had got by cheques from alleged shell companies, also got the notice from the Income Tax department, which has sent missives to Congress and 48 other entities.
The notices to AAP and others have sought information about the identity of the contributors and other relevant details necessary to complete the probe.

The BJP including Prime Minister Modi had mounted a vigorous campaign against the AAP after AVAM, a breakaway group of the party led by Arvind Kejriwal, claimed that shell companies who have no networth of profits had contributed four cheques of Rs 50 lakh each to AAP on the midnight of April 15 last year.'

Targetting Modi over the issue, Congress spokesperson P C Chacko said that while issuing such notices by the IT is a process of law, "the fact is that the Prime Minister had himself made an allegation. I do not know whether the notice was issued because of the Prime Minister making the allegation....
"Anyway these are all things to be dealt strictly by law and politics should not interfere in that. If any person has received donation, the IT department has got every right to send a notice. This should not be with some kind of a prejudice or with some kind of a political motive."

Chacko claimed that the accounts of the Congress party are very transparent.