Centre Submitted 627 Names to Supreme Court in the Black Money Case

Oct 29, 2014 Tushita News 0

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After the Supreme Court directed the Centre not to extend a ‘protective umbrella’ to those who have been discovered to be having black money in foreign bank accounts and hence reveal their names to the court, the government has submitted a sealed list to the court, containing 627 names.

Mukul Rohatgi, the Attorney general acted in accordance with the court’s order to reveal those who have been allegedly hiding money in Swiss bank accounts.

Speaking to the media outside the court, Rohatgi said, “The government of India gave the entire list of HSBC accounts. There are about 627 accounts. We gave it in a sealed cover to the court.”

Apart from the names, the Centre also gave two other sealed envelopes, having particulars of treaties with overseas nations and investigations made by their agencies.

Court directs SIT to conduct probe:

However, the court didn’t open the envelopes and said that it should be handed to the special investigation team (SIT) investigating the case of black money.

The apex court directed that only the chairman and vice-chairman of the SIT can unfold the envelopes, further instructing the team to submit a report on the status of the probe by November end.

The court made it clear that the further action in the case will be decided by the SIT, and announced December 3 as the next date of hearing.

Lawyer Prashant Bhushansaid, “The court has directed all documents should be handed over to SIT and they will take appropriate decisions on the matter.”

Further speaking about the matter, Attorney General Rohatgi said, “All assessments have to be completed by March 31, 2015… Sealed covers will be opened by SIT.”

Santosh Hegde, a former Supreme Court judge commented on the development, “I don’t think the government had a choice. They had to comply with the court’s order (of submitting a detailed list).”

The SIT Team:

As promised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his election campaigns, the SIT team was set up by him on his first day in the office and was his first step towards fighting the corruption prevalent due to the parallel economy.

The team is made up of ex-judges and regulators who are expected to identify the illegitimate fund-holders and hence bring back the money to the country.

The Congress-BJP blame game:

The Bharatiya Janata Party has also alleged that the previous UPA regime failed to crack down on those who stashed billions of untaxed dollars in their foreign bank accounts. The blame-game acquired a much interesting colour recently, when the Finance Minister claimed that if the names of these account holders are revealed, the opposition party (Congress) would face a huge amount of embarrassment.

To this threat, the Congress reacted by saying that the ruling government should come clean with the whole information instead of letting out ‘selective leaks’, adding that the Congress will not get blackmailed under such pretexts.

However, the names that the government first revealed in the matter were those of Dabur group founder, Pradip Burman, Pankaj Chimanlal Lodhya – a Rajkot-based bullion trader and 5 members of Goa-based mining company Timblo Private. Any Congress leader was not named in the initial list provided to the court by the BJP government.

Kejriwal and Jethmalani back the cause:

Arvind Kejriwal, the chief of Aam Aadmi Party has also requested the court by filing an application, to hear him out in the case. Apart from him, Ram Jethmalani, the former law minister had filed a public interest petition in 2009, asking the court to direct the Centre to repatriate the black money. He had alleged that the government was trying to protect powerful businessmen and politicians. The petition is still being heard by the court.

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• black money, Black money holders, Black Money List, Centre's blackmoney list, foreign account holders, lack money probe, SIT probe, Supreme Court order, Swiss bank accounts

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