According to Dr Swamy, former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and his family has accounts abroad where they may have kept black money. He even alleged that Mr Gandhi was detained in the US for carrying $160,000 in cash without the mandatory declaration

Janata Party president Dr Subramanian Swamy has asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to provide information on the black money account of the Gandhi family. In a letter written to AP Singh, director, CBI, Dr Swamy provided information relating to the disclosure of offences committed under the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) about three incidents and requested the agency to record it as part of the first information report (FIR).

In the letter, Dr Swamy said, in November 1991 issue, Schweitzer Illustrate had published an article disclosing that former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi had about $2 billion in secret bank accounts in Switzerland. “Although the information is two decades old, you are aware that there is no time limitation for corruption cases under the PCA. Also even if Rajiv Gandhi is now deceased, his likely beneficiaries are his wife, Sonia, and two children, two of whom are public servants,” the letter said.

Dr Swamy also said that Russian spy agency the KGB had paid some money to Mr Gandhi and his family. According to the letter, Russian scholar Dr Yevgenia Albats, in her book, ‘A State Within a State: KGB in Soviet Union’ disclosed the file numbers that contain evidence of the KGB payments to the then prime minister Mr Gandhi and his family members. In 2002 the then external affairs minister Jaswant Singh had taken this matter up with the Russians and was informed by the Russian authorities that the government of India may send a senior representative of the RAW to Moscow to obtain authenticated records of KGB payments to Mr Gandhi and his family, said the letter.

The Janata Party president also said that he had information that during the second half of 2001, Mr Gandhi was detained at Boston’s Logan Airport by US law enforcement authorities for possessing $160,000 in cash. However, Dr Swamy says, “The then principal secretary to the PM, Brijesh Mishra, to my knowledge, had intervened with the US Secretary of State, and arrangements were made get to Mr Gandhi released.”

“In his deposition to the US authorities before returning to London Mr Gandhi had declared that the money was his, and he had drawn it out of his secret account in Pictet Bank, headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. I may mention here later that while studying in Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida, USA, Mr Gandhi paid his tuition and other fees to the College from his secret accounts,” Dr Swamy alleged.