Thursday, March 9 2006 15:12 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Chandigarh: Accusing the Congress government in Haryana of "politically maligning" them, Indian National Lok Dal leader Ajay Chautala today (Mar 09 2006) said his family is ready to face the CBI probe into charges of disproportionate assets.

"It looks as if the Congress government does not have any faith in its investigating agencies, including the Vigilance Bureau, as the Hooda government has handed over the case to the CBI," he told sources here.

Neither he nor his father former Chief Minister Om Parkash Chautala had been questioned in the case. "We have neither been summoned nor questioned by any agency so far. We are waiting for them." the INLD general secretary said.

Chautala said his father, younger brother Abhey and he were MPs or MLAs and had declared their assets on affidavits at the time of contesting elections and dismissed the allegations of Congress leaders that the family possessed assets to the tune of Rs 3,500 crore.

Besides, the assets had been declared before income tax authorities, he claimed.

The CBI had been notified on February 22 by the Centre to conduct a probe into the allegations of corruption levelled in the "Memorandum of chargesheet" submitted to the state Governor by former Haryana Congress President Shamsher Singh Surjewala and other party leaders before the elections to the Assembly in February last year.