Paradise Papers: All transactions were legal, says Jayant Sinha

Days after his name appeared in the "Paradise Papers", Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha on Wednesday reiterated that his transactions were "completely bona fide and legal".

Representation pic

"Before I joined public life, I was a venture capitalist. I was working for one of the world's leading investment firm. As a representative of Omidyar Network on the D.Light Board, I signed a paper so that D.Light can borrow some money from another very reputable firm," Sinha told reporters here.

In a social media post, Sinha had also said that the transactions were done for D.Light as an Omidyar representative and not for any personal purpose. Sinha said that tax evaders often used shell companies and offshore tax havens in order to avoid paying taxes in their home countries.

"In this particular case, my situation has nothing to do with any such things at all. It was a completely bona-fide legal transaction on behalf of the company and had nothing to do with my personal situation at all," said Sinha. The "Paradise Papers" are a set of 13.4 million leaked financial documents from law firm Appleby on investments of major multinational corporations and that of well-known individuals in India and abroad in tax havens.