Preneet Kaur Preneet Kaur

Former Union minister and Congress leader Preneet Kaur on Monday confirmed that she is being investigated by the income tax authorities for allegedly holding an illegal bank account abroad, a charge she denies.

"In keeping with my reply to the Income Tax department, I should like to state that I never have had, and do not have any bank account(s) overseas in my name with any foreign bank," Kaur, wife of former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh, told a TV channel.

In a high-profile contest, Amarinder Singh of the Congress had defeated Finance Minister Arun Jaitley from Amritsar in the Lok Sabha elections in May.

Reports said Kaur is one of the four Congress leaders undergoing probe in the black money case, forcing the party to launch a multi-pronged attack on the Centre and accusing it of "blackmail and hypocrisy".

"I dare Mr Modi, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and the NDA government to reveal all the names. It is doublespeak and hypocrisy when Modi goes around as a PM candidate saying he will bring back all black money," senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said.

In an interview last week, Jaitley had claimed that the revelation of the list of Indians holding illegal bank accounts abroad will embarrass the Congress. The party hit back, "daring" the government to reveal all names or "stop blackmailing" it.

Meanwhile, the Centre on Monday revealed three names - Pradip Burman of the Dabur family, Rajkot-based bullion trader Pankaj Chalamanlal Lodhia and Goa-based mining baron Radha Timblo - in its affidavit on black money in the Supreme Court. The disclosure, the government said, was the first in what it claimed will be a series of such revelations in the coming days.

The three business leaders named in the Centre's affidavit later issued separate statements, denying the allegations.

Senior Supreme Court lawyer and petitioner in the black money case, Ram Jethmalani, slammed the Centre over the revelations. "It is a case of mountain in labour producing a mouse," he said.

Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit later claimed that the three names were already disclosed the UPA government earlier. "These names were already revealed by the UPA. The selective leakage of names smells of suspicious motives," he said.