High-power panel to probe black money case

The committee comprises of chief of Enforcement Directorate (ED), Intelligence Bureau (IB), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and top bureaucrats of different ministries.
“We have set-up a 10-member committee to deal with the issue, which will file its status report on a timely basis,” Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam submitted before a Bench of Justices S Sudershan Reddy and S S Nijjar.

He also told the court that the government was not merely focusing on one Hasan Ali in its probe in the black money matter. The CBI is probing the security aspect while the ED is focusing on money laundering and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is looking into the money stashed in foreign countries, he claimed.“There is no hiccup in constituting multi-disciplinary probe as a standing mechanism to get coordinated impact,” Subramaniam said.

The response of the government’s law officer came in the wake of the Supreme Court favouring on a number of occasions setting up of a special investigating team (SIT) to probe the matter.

The committee would also include deputy governor of RBI, chairman Centre Board of Direct Tax (CBDT), director generals Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and others.

Cabinet Secretary, Home, Defence and Foreign Secretaries would also be in the committee, he said.

Senior counsel Anil Divan, who appeared on behalf of Rajya Sabha MP and noted criminal lawyer Ram Jethmalani, one of the petitioners seeking direction to bring black money stashed in banks abroad, questioned the formation of the committee saying that it was the old wine in a new bottle.

 “Instead of the SIT, the government has formed a committee taking a complete control to exclude all independent scrutiny,” he said.