SIT set to expand ambit of probe into black money

February 10, 2015

New Delhi, Feb 10: The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the black money cases is set to widen its inquiry in view of new names of Indians with Swiss bank accounts emerging on Monday.

SIT black money

The SIT, however, said legal action would be taken only after verification of facts.

“The scope of investigation will definitely be widened due to the (emergence of) new names. We will have to identify those names and scrutinise them,” SIT Chairman Justice (retd) M B Shah was quoted as saying by a news agency.

He said there were some old names, but some new names have also come out.

“We can't take action on the basis of news reports only. We will first verify the claims from our side and then take legal action,” he said.

The revelations by a collaboration of “The Indian Express” and “Le Monde” of Paris with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) brought out names ranging from the richest Indian industrialist Mukesh Ambani, having an average joint balance of Rs 164.92 crore along with his younger brother Anil Ambani, to NRI businessman Naresh Goyal and politician Narayan Rane.

The list also included the names of Dabur Chairman Anand Chand Burman; Anurag Dalmia of Dalmia Pvt Ltd; Yash Birla Group Chairperson Yashodhara Birla, Rajan Prasad Nanda of Escorts; and Harshavardhan Neotia of the Ambuja Group.

SIT Vice-Chairman Justice (retd) Arijit Pasayat, who attended a meeting of the high-powered panel, said that it would “consider all new cases where there is evidence of black money”.

“If any new name comes and whichever way we have authentic information, we will act on it,” he said after the over-two-hour meeting, where existing cases of this nature were also reviewed.

The SIT had in December submitted a report to the apex court revealing that people on the HSBC list held Rs 4,479 crore in Swiss banks. The court had directed the Centre to ensure that the ongoing probe was completed by March this year.

It had suggested quoting PAN for cash and cheque transaction for payments over Rs 1 lakh to curb cases of slush money. Unregulated mining, Ponzi schemes, iron-ore exports, and the misuse of the export-import route, were identified as major areas prone to black money transactions.

The new names reported by the ICIJ said their records, apparently obtained through leaks from a Geneva-based branch of the HSBC, show that there are 1,668 Indians on it, while the number of actionable cases stands at 1,195 after taking into account duplication and some other factors.

Collectively, these accounts had a balance of $4.1 billion (Rs 25,420 crore) till 2007. The SIT is likely to discuss the new data in its next meet.

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Agencies
January 25,2020

Jammu, Jan 25: People in Jammu and Kashmir expressed happiness over the restoration of mobile data services and internet access through fixed-line across the Union Territory on Saturday.

Speaking to ANI Jitendra Sharma, a resident of Jammu said, "The government has taken a good decision. People had been facing hardship for a long period and I think it will improve further."

"It is a big relief to people. People can finish their pending work. I hope that 4G services will also be resumed soon," said a resident of Kashmir.

The internet speed is restricted to 2G only.

"Access shall be limited only to whitelisted sites and not to any social media applications allowing peer to peer communication and virtual private network applications. Directions shall be effective from January 25 and will remain in force till January 31," the statement by the government read.

Earlier on January 15, 2G services were reinstated in Jammu, Samba, Kathua, and Udhampur for white-listed sites.

The Central government had suspended the internet in the region following the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution on August 5 last year, which conferred special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, and its bifurcation into two Union Territories -- Ladakh, and Jammu and Kashmir.

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News Network
February 17,2020

New Delhi, Feb 17: Four death row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder will be hanged on March 3 at 6 am a Delhi court said on Monday.

The Patiala House Court on Monday issued fresh death warrants against four convicts while hearing a petition by the state and Nirbhaya's parents.

Earlier, Delhi High Court on February 5 granted a week's time to the four convicts to avail of all legal remedies available to them and said that the convicts cannot be hanged separately since they were convicted for the same crime.

A Delhi Court had earlier issued a death warrant against the four convicts -- Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta, and Mukesh Singh -- on January 7 and they were scheduled to be executed on January 22 at Tihar Jail. Later, the execution was suspended indefinitely by a Delhi court.

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News Network
May 14,2020

London, May 14: Fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya on Thursday urged the Central government to accept his offer to repay 100 per cent of his loan dues and close the case against him.

While congratulating the Centre for introducing Rs 20 lakh crore relief package to boost the economy amid the coronavirus lockdown, Mallya, lamented that his repeated attempts to pay back his dues have been ignored by the Indian government.

"Congratulations to the Government for a Covid 19 relief package. They can print as much currency as they want BUT should a small contributor like me who offers 100% payback of State-owned Bank loans be constantly ignored? Please take my money unconditionally and close," he tweeted.

Earlier this month, Mallya had sought permission to appeal against a ruling ordering his extradition to India in Britain's highest court the UK Supreme Court.

The application comes two weeks after the High Court in London - the UK's second-highest court - dismissed Mallya's appeal against a lower court ruling that he be sent to India to face charges of defrauding a consortium of Indian banks of more than Rs 9,000 crores relating to the collapse of Kingfisher Airlines in 2012.

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