Black money: Action taken against 6, govt tells SC

The Centre on Friday informed the Supreme Court that it is not possible to make public names of all persons who have stashed away black money in banks abroad. HT reports.

The Centre on Friday informed the Supreme Court that it is not possible to make public names of all persons who have stashed away black money in banks abroad.

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Solicitor general Gopal Subramanium also told the bench headed by justice Sudershan B Reddy and justice SS Nijjar that the Centre has initiated proceedings against six more persons for stashing black money in foreign countries.

Subramanium agreed to reveal names of those six who are facing prosecution by the government authorities.

The court was, however, not satisfied and asked the government to explain on the next date of hearing as to which law barred it from making such information public.

“What is the difficulty in disclosing the information,” the bench had asked, when Subramanium told the bench that the government has got the details but did not want to reveal it.

The solicitor general also defended corruption allegations levelled against Enforcement Directorate chief Arun Mathur by one of the petitioners in the black money case.

In a statement before the SC, Subramanium claimed the allegations were baseless. “All the allegations are baseless. I verified from the record and found that CBI never raided Mathur’s house as alleged by a petitioner,” he said.

The government’s reply came after the court had on the last hearing sought its response on two affidavits filed by petitioners Jasbir Singh and former supercop Julio F Riberio in the black money case. Both had questioned the credentials of Mathur and his two associates, Prabha Kant and S K Sahni.

When Subramanium told the court Singh was a serving IPS officer in UP and this information wasn’t disclosed before the court, the bench expressed its displeasure.

“It’s required that they must disclose information (about them),” the bench said after SG pointed out that another petitioner was also an IAS officer but had not revealed that he was principal secretary in chief minister’s office in UP.

The bench asked IIT Kharagpur professor SK Dubey to file affidavit giving details of what transpired between him and Prabha Kant as it was alleged that the ED officer threatened him for writing letter to the PM against him and his chief Mathur.