Black money case: Ponzi scheme, defence, export deals under SIT scanner

The Special Investigation Team appointed by the Central Government to look into the menace of black money may currentlyhave its hands full with the over 600 Swiss bank account holders’ detailsgiven to it by the Supreme Court but among the other cases it is probing reportedly include a ponzi scheme, defence deals, Ketan Parekh stock market scam and other import-export cases.

According to a DNA report, the SIT is probing nine cases that were referred it by the CBI.

The report notes:

The first report of the SIT submitted in August this year, accessed exclusively by the Zee Group, mentions recent cases like the Rs 45,000-crore PACL Ponzi scheme, supply of 87 armoured recovery vehicles involving BEML, BHEL and its partner UNIMPAX of Slovak Republic and the UK, the DSQ software case involving Dinesh Dalmia and Greenfield Investment in Mauritius, rubber plant over-invoicing involving Piyush Goyal and of MV Enterprises, fake Chinese suppliers’ case involving RGR Impex Pvt Ltd, NAFED money-laundering case and STC export-import case involving Rajat Pharmachem Ltd.

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The CBI has already sought posting of its officers in some of the Indian missions abroad besides cutting down of red-tape involved in sending Letters Rogatory(LR) as measures to expedite cases related to black money such as the ones pointed out to the SIT.

As per the present procedure, CBI submits a Letters Rogatory request to the Ministry of Home Affairs which is vetted and sent to the court. After seeking the LR from the court, it is again sent to Home Ministry which after completing the process sends it to the Legal Treaties Division of External Affairs ministry for sending it to the desired foreign country.

While there was no exact number of LRs pending with various foreign nations, officials in the CBIput the figure above5,000.

The SIT’s probe into the 628 account holders in HSBC’s Geneva branch may also be aided by the fact that the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) had according to the DNA report,already acquired consent from 174 of them to get further details about their accounts from the bank and had already assessed over 70 of them, while 27 of them could face prosecution.

The special body has also made a range of recommendations in order to curb the amount of black money being generated from export deals.

The SIT was asked to prepare a comprehensive action plan including creation of necessary institutional structurethat could enable the country to fight the battle against unaccounted money. In view of the action plan, the SIT had asked various probe agencies to submit their views on expediting cases where allegations of black money having been stashed abroad was made.

Justice MB Shah, one of the two judges heading the SIT, had earlier said the investigation against people accused of stashing money abroad is going on at “very fast” pace and necessary action will be taken against them.

“The investigation in all black money cases is going on at a very fast pace and all the agencies have their task clear. I am sure it will give us good results. I don’t think the speed is slow as investigation of tax and other such cases involves procedures of law. The agencies are doing it and the SIT is seeing that,” he said.

The SIT is expected to submit its next report to the Supreme Court in the first week of December and while it isn’t expected to reveal any names just yet, its current findings may just be more explosive than the previous one.