New Delhi, March 7: The Supreme Court today asked the Centre to furnish all six probe reports on alleged stashing of illegal wealth by over 500 Indian nationals in secret overseas bank accounts.
The directive came after solicitor-general Ranjit Kumar and additional solicitor-general P.S. Narasimha, appearing for the Centre, said a "multi-investigation agency" (MIG) had so far submitted the six reports to a special investigation team (SIT) constituted by the apex court to unearth black money in foreign countries.
However, the bench of Justices Dipak Misra, A.M. Khanwilkar and M. Shantanagouder was not satisfied with the submission and asked the Centre to place the six reports in sealed covers within four weeks. The court said it would go through the reports and decide whether to form another SIT to monitor the MIG's investigations.
The MIG comprises officials of the Central Board of Direct Taxes, RBI, Enforcement Directorate and the Financial Intelligence Unit, a wing to track suspicious transactions.
The bench was hearing a PIL by an advocate, M.L. Sharma, seeking a CBI investigation into the alleged accumulation of unaccounted wealth by over 500 Indians and claims that liquor baron Vijay Mallya laundered money.
The court had earlier sought responses from the CBI, Centre, RBI and capital market regulator Sebi on the plea. Sharma had also demanded a CBI probe into claims that Sebi officials glossed over alleged money laundering by Mallya in 2009 despite inputs from their counterparts in the UK.
"Sebi, being the regulator of capital markets, had received specific information from the Financial Service Authority (FSA), the regulator of the securities market in the UK, in 2009 regarding undisclosed bank accounts of Mr. Vijay Mallya with UBS (Bank)," Sharma's plea said, seeking action against the then Sebi chief and others.
The petition had also sought a CBI probe into a report of April 3, 2016, in a national daily on the biggest leak of over 11 million documents of a Panama law firm with the names of over 500 Indians linked to offshore firms. The leaked papers had identified the 500 Indians, including celebrities and industrialists, reported to have parked funds in offshore accounts in transactions brokered by the law firm. The papers were released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in association with various media organisations around the world.
More than 11 million documents from the secret files of Mossack Fonseca - the law firm headquartered in tax-haven Panama and known more for creating fictitious offshore companies to service its worldwide clientele of high and mighty - were released by the ICIJ.
"These records reveal a list of individuals who have paid the firm and bought the benefits of the secretive lax regulatory system in which it operates, to set up offshore entities in tax havens around the world," the petition said.





