AAP alleges selective action against black money hoarders

Aam Aadmi Party leaders Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan on Monday submitted a memorandum to Supreme Court appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT), urging it to stop the government from taking selective action against persons on the list of black money holders in foreign banks.

The AAP leaders alleged that the most powerful people on the list, including some from the Ambani family, have been let off by making them revise their tax returns by back dating them. No penalty or prosecution has been launched against them. The leaders attributed the source of their information to  “whistleblowers”.

Kejriwal and Bhushan met the chairperson and vice-chairperson of SIT, Justice M B Shah and Justice Arijit Pasayat respectively, and made the submission. They alleged that the bureaucracy had been instructed not to act against powerful persons. They noted that Anil Ambani had been made the brand ambassador of Swacch Bharat Abhiyan, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated a hospital promoted by Mukesh Ambani. The speech of Neeta Ambani was tweeted by the PMO’s handle live and the photograph of Ambani family with the prime minister was doing the rounds.

“A message has gone to the entire bureaucracy that some of the names on the list are very close to the new prime minister (incidentally, they were close to the previous prime minister too) and that no action should be taken against them,” they complained.

In their memorandum, they questioned: “Some people were raided, interrogated, made to pay taxes, penalty and were now being prosecuted. Why similar action has not been taken against others?”  “Also, we are told that those who have given signed consent  are being ‘unofficially’ granted immunity from prosecution.”

The leaders said around 200 people on the black money list were made to sign a “consent” that they did not have any objection to HSBC sharing their complete bank details with the Indian government.