Senior advocate Ram Jethmalani on Monday denied in the Supreme Court that the German Government had imposed a condition that the names of black money holders revealed by it to the Government of India should not be made public.
In an affidavit in response to the Centre’s plea for modification of the May 1, 2014 order, Jethmalani said “the present application is an attempt to make the Special Investigation Team dysfunctional and toothless by depriving it of material and information. I deny that the German Government had imposed any obligation of confidentiality. This so-call defence was manufactured by the previous UPA Government and is being repeated by the present one without any sanction from the Cabinet.”
He said the Government had failed to comply with the directions of the apex court of supplying all the relevant document and information given by the German authorities to India.
Jethmalani said HSBC had a branch or a subsidiary in Geneva, Switzerland. Certain employees stole the data with respect to about 50,000 accounts maintained in HSBC, Geneva. The compact discs (CDs) containing the above information were purchased/obtained by the French Government and used in spite of protest by HSBC. The French Government made available this information to the Government of India and it had nothing to do with the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement.
He said the situation was similar to the one regarding Liechtenstein bank accounts and the NDA Government’s attempt to conceal the names and was not only disingenuous but also an attempt to protect the powerful individuals in business and politics in the same manner as the previous UPA Government.
“If an Indian citizen opens an account in a foreign bank and does not or has not disclosed it and the amount is not negligible there is a presumption that it is tainted and product of some scheduled offence.”
He sought dismissal of the Centre’s application for modification of the May 1order.