Govt sets up nine member panel in black money cases

Govt sets up nine member panel in black money cases

A high power committee comprising heads of various probe agencies and specialised departments has been constituted to monitor the investigation and steps taken to bring back black money stashed in foreign banks.

The 9 member committee, which will immediately start functioning, consists of Revenue Secretary, Deputy Governor of RBI, Directors of CBI, Intelligence Bureau (IB), Enforcement Directorate, Chairman of CBDT, Director General of Revenue Intelligence, Director General of DGNC Director of Foreign Intelligence Office (FIO) and Joint Secretary of Foreign Trade.

Government said the multi-disciplinary committee for the investigations and other steps likely to be taken, can co-opt members not below the rank of joint secretary for effective implementation of the work in consultation with the secretaries in Home, Foreign and Defence ministries.

The secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat can also be co-opted as a member.

The government stand was in response to proposal of a bench comprising justices B Sudershan Reddy and S S Nijjar which had favoured setting up of an independent special investigating team (SIT) headed by a retired judge to monitor the case.

Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium told the bench that the co-ordinated mechanism has been put in place to deal with all such cases of black money and it would be headed by the Revenue Secretary.

He further said that various aspects of the black money case can be probed by different agencies and it would not be limited to the present case of Pune stud farm owner Hasan Ali Khan who has come under the scanner of ED and income tax department.

As far as security angle of the case is concerned, it would be probed by the CBI which would also deal with Hasan Ali Khan case.

"Money laundering to be investigated by the ED while RBI should be asked to look into the black money stashed in UBS and other Swiss bank," Subramanium said.

The government also submitted that it is investigating into 36 cases involving black money and informed the court that it has entered into agreement with 26 countries under which it could attached the black money stashed in their banks by Indian citizens.

The government's submission came after it was pulled up in the last hearing on April 21 for restricting its probe to an individual and being evasive about the idea of an investigation by the Special Investigating Team.

The bench had asked the government to explain why its investigation was focused only on Hasan Ali Khan and no other names have come out who have stashed money in overseas banks.