Narendra Modi's government creates political sensation by naming 'black money' holders

New Delhi Amid opposition attack of being soft on money laundering the Indian government Monday furnished the names of two individuals including a promoter of the Dabur consumer goods company and a mining company and its five directors to the Supreme Court alleging they had funds in bank accounts abroad over which proceedings had been initiated for tax evasionThose named are prominent industrialist and scion of the Dabur Group Pradeep Burman Rajkotbased bullion trader and realtor Pankaj Chimanlal Lodhiya and Goabased mining firm Timblo Pvt Ltd and its five directors The information on Burman had been secured from the French while on others the sources were other countries the apex court was toldBurman Lodhiya and one of the directors of Timblo all reacted differently to the alleged revelation but all claimed innocenceThe names were filed in an affidavit after a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice HL Dattu permitted such filing soon after Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi representing the Prime Minister Narendra Modi government raised the matter in the morningThe government in its affidavit said it has no intention to hold back any information or the names it has received from foreign governments of Indian citizens holding undeclared accounts in foreign banks containing income on which no taxes were paid to the national exchequer As per some reports one list has as many as 780 namesThe intention of the present government is clear and unambiguous The government is keen to unearth the black money held abroad and for that purpose it will use all diplomatic and legal means and also all investigative agencies to obtain information that can assist in such unearthingAt the same time the government also sought to make it clear that every foreign account held by an Indian overseas may not be illegal even as all names cannot be disclosed till such time it has evidence of wrongdoingThe affidavit also said one of the first tasks after the Prime Minister Narendra Modi government took charge was to set up the Special Investigation Team SIT on black money in tax havens abroad as had been asked for by the apex courtThe government application sought the modification of the courts earlier order directing it to disclose all the names of the Indian citizens that it had received from German tax authorities in March 2009 who were holding accounts in LGT Bank in LiechtensteinFrom among those named Dabur was the first to react for Pradeep Burman We wish to state that this account was opened when he Pradip was an NRI and was legally allowed to open this account a Dabur spokesperson said in a statementPankaj Lodhiya denied holding any Swiss bank accounts and claimed that he had disclosed whatever he had to say to the Income Tax authorities He also said he was shocked to see his name coming in the government listReacting for her company Goan mining magnate Radha S Timblo said she needed to study the governments affidavit to the apex court first before commenting adding she will give her reaction to the apex court She was named along with her firms Chetan S Timblo Rohan S Timblo Anna C Timblo and Mallika R TimbloThe government had told the Supreme Court earlier that it cannot yet reveal the names of all Indians with alleged illegal bank accounts abroad based on the information it had received information from foreign governmentsThis it had said was mainly on account of the fact that it cannot afford to break the various treaties with foreign countries on double taxation and that prosecution proceedings with proper evidence in hand had to be initiated firstAny premature and out of court disclosure of the names of account holders would not only vitiate the investigations but will enable such account holders to get away with their offences Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had saidThe National Democratic Alliance NDA governments approach on black money is doggedly persistent not adventurist added Jaitley a lawyer by profession and also the countrys defence ministerEven as the government officially sought to keep the mood quiet BJP party spokespersons went on an overdrive with one of them calling it a historic day in the illegal money caseThere was also some political posturingThe government has to answer a lot of questions There is a reluctance on its part to give out all the names This shows the government lacks the political will and determination to fulfil its election promises Communist Party of India CPI National Secretary D Raja saidHe said this was crucial since Finance Minister Jaitley had said that some names will embarrass the Congress Party What has happened to those names Why are the names of politicians not being revealed he askedCongress also joined in with spokesperson Sanjay Jha saying the action Monday was in stark contrast to the BJPs election manifesto that had promised to bring back black money speedilyThe BJP had promised to bring back black money in 100 days if they came to power During the campaign for general election they had promised people to reveal all names who had put illegal money in foreign banks Jha told IANSSenior Congress minister Salman Khurshid said cherrypicking names on the list was wrong and immoral The government should disclose all the names on the list to the court as per law Khurshid saidIndia has no official estimates of illegal money stashed away overseas But the unofficial ones range from 466 billion to 14 trillionIndustry did not react but a day before the affidavit leading chamber Assocham had Sunday said premature disclosure of names of Indians with allegedly illegal bank accounts abroad will hurt Indias battle against black money