By IANS,
New Delhi : The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Friday told the Supreme Court that the names of the six people, who had laundered money in foreign banks based in Liechtenstein, could be made public on the directions of the court.
An apex court bench of Justice B. Sudershan Reddy and Justice S.S. Nijjar was told by Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium that of the 18 people whose names are with the income tax authorities, proceedings have been launched against six and now their names are in public domain and could be disclosed.
The information about these 18 people were given in a sealed envelope.
The court was told that the tax assessment and recovery proceedings in respect of the remaining 12 people were on and it was not possible to disclose their identities at this stage.
The court asked the solicitor general why the names of other twelve people, against whom action has been initiated, could not be made public. The court itself said sarcastically (it is because of) “Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA)”.
When the court said that the “the point is simple that the information furnished to you (the centre) by Germany is not under DTAA”, the solicitor general clarified that the information was supplied under DTAA.
When the CBDT wrote to the German authorities seeking information in their possession on Indian nationals holding money in banks in Liechtenstein, they said that it could only be provided under DTAA, Subramanium told the court.
The court’s observation came in the wake of the hearing of a petition by eminent jurist Ram Jathmalani seeking directions to the centre to take steps to bring back the black money stashed away to foreign banks in tax havens by Indian citizens.
Earlier in the course of the hearing, the court asked the Delhi Police Commissioner to file an affidavit giving the status report on its investigation into the complaint by Kharagpur IIT director on being allegedly intimidated by the deputy director of the Directorate of Enforcement, Prabha Kant, for writing to the prime minister against him and other ED officers.
S.K. Dubey, an IIT director, is one of the several eminent citizens that include super cop Julius Riberio and former chief election commissioner J.M. Lyngdoh, who wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh against of indulging in cover-up in money laundering cases by ED Director Arun Mathur and officers Prabha Kant and S.K. Sawhney.
Prabha Kant, in his affidavit Friday, denied all the allegations.
Subramanium told the court that all the allegations levelled in the letter were factually incorrect. He that neither Mathur’s residence was ever raided by the CBI, as alleged, nor the investigating agency maintained any list of officers of doubtful integrity.
Senior counsel Rajiv Dhawan countered, saying that that notwithstanding some factual errors, the fact remains that after letter was written Prabha Kant contacted Dubey and threatened him.
Harish Salve appeared for Prabha Kant.
The court asked Dubey to file an affidavit stating what transpired in his meeting with Prabha Kant.
The matter will come up for hearing Wednesday.