Panama papers: SC gives Centre four weeks to respond to CBI

The Supreme Court on Monday gave four more weeks to the Union government and the RBI to respond to a plea seeking CBI inquiry against Indian offshore bank account holders named in the Panama papers.

A bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra and U U Lalit asked the Centre, the RBI and the CBI to file their reply to the petition filed by advocate M L Sharma. The court had on May 9 issued notice to the various agencies on the PIL.

It was informed by the Centre that a Multi Agency Group of various investigative agencies has been formed by the government to go into the disclosures made in the list which includes about 500 Indian entities.

The plea referred to some prominent people like actors — Amitabh Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, corporates including liquor baron Vijay Mallya, DLF owner K P Singh and nine members of his family, and the promoters of Apollo Tyres and Indiabulls in the list of 500 Indians named in Panama papers.

The Panama Papers contained an unprecedented amount of information,
including more than 11 million documents covering 2,10,000 companies in 21 offshore
jurisdictions.

 Each transaction spans different jurisdictions and may involve multiple entities and individuals.

The petition filed by Sharma sought a CBI probe against about 500 Indian offshore account holders and stock market regulators under the supervision of the Supreme Court.