Arvind Kejriwal's new 'expose': Highlights

New Delhi: Breaking the suspense Arvind Kejriwal opened another can of allegations today, this time claiming to have details of black money stashed away in Swiss bank by top industrialists and even a politician reportedly 'close' to Rahul Gandhi.

This press conference comes after Mr Kejriwal alleged scandals involving Robert Vadra, Salman Khurshid, Nitin Gadkari and the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance group.

This time Mr Kejriwal addressed the press conference flanked by Prashant Bhushan and Manish Sisodia.

Highlights of his press conference:

• When we had done the previous expose, BJP said we have a 'weekly market of exposes'
• I want to tell them - there are so many scams that a weekly market will not do - a daily one is needed. (Read: Press note on India Against Corruption website)
  
• The day there was a reshuffle I got a message from a senior Congress leader - saying we should stay on the Robert Vadra case.
• The expose today  - the information we first got from a senior Congress leader. We further investigated the facts he had mentioned.
• The paper we will present today suggests that black money in Swiss banks can return to India but will not since the govt is in  cahoots with criminals.
  
• The present CBI director estimates there are over 500 crores stashed abroad.
• We got a CD - HSBC's Geneva branch has 700 accounts of Indian nationals. That list is available with the government with the amounts in the accounts in December 2006.
• We do not have the full list  but we have some names- Mukesh Ambani  has Rs 100 crores.
  
• Anil Ambani has Rs 100 crores
  Sandeep Tandon - former IRS, ED official - who raided Reliance has Rs 125 crores
• Reliance Industries Rs 200 crores
  Sandeep Tandon's wife Anu, who is now Congress MP from Unnao - and a member of Rahul Gandhi's core group - has Rs 125 crores.
• Motech Software Private Ltd (Reliance Group company) - Rs 2,100 crores
• Kokila Dhirubhai Ambani has an account but in December 2006 it had no balance. 
• Naresh Goyal has Rs 80 crores.
  
• From Dabur - 3 members have accounts - totalling Rs 25 crores.
  
• Yashovardhan Birla has an account but in December 2006 it has no balance. 
• CBI had said there is Rs 25 lakh crores - these 700 names account for only Rs 6000 Crores. 
• In 28 July 2011, the Income Tax (IT) Department raided three people in Delhi based on this list. 
  
• All the three confessed - and we have the statements given by them to IT department here with us.
• Opening an account in a Swiss bank is easier than opening an account in SBI Bank. For a Swiss bank account you need to just make a call. for an SBI account you need to visit the branch. This is real easy - why would you have an SBI account - just go to a Swiss Bank. 
• On what basis did the them Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee decide who were raided and who weren't?
• Why weren't Dabur or Birla or the Ambanis raided? Pranab Mukherjee may be President but he must answer. 
• Finance Ministry sources say that Mukesh Ambani met Finance Minister and said " they were prepared to pay tax to buy peace." 
• Even Mukesh Ambani must explain how the Rs 100 crores reached Swiss bank, how the account was operated - do they indulge in hawala transactions? And if they do then they should have been arrested.
• All the people - they should furnish all details of their accounts - all the debit entries must be checked.
• We would then know who all were bribed by money paid out from these accounts.
• We demand a raid immediately be carried out on Mukesh Ambani, Anil Ambani, Naresh Goyal, Yash Birla and the three Dabur brothers - and if hawala is proved, they should be arrested.
• Voluntary Disclosure Scheme (VDS) was designed to save these 700 people.
• How does the government know this isn't black money? Did they dream it up?
• I am revulsed at how the Government of India is saving such criminals.
• In Parliament the government denied that it is offering amnesty  to wealthy citizens in  reply to Gurudas Dasgupta's statement.
  
• The government lied in Parliament that it had info of Rs 565 cr - we know there was info of Rs 6000 crores and they have recovered only Rs 181 crores.
• HSBC is promoting kidnapping, corruption and terrorism in India by facilitating Hawala.
  
• In Pakistan, if someone wants money to reach India, they can do it through HSBC. 
• In July, the US government realised that HSBC had some transactions which was making US vulnerable to drug , terror and illicit money. In that probe, they realised that HSBC operations in India were suspect.
  
• The Union Government gave a clean chit to HSBC employees in one month.
  
• The Manmohan Singh government has become a threat to the economic sovereignty of India.
  
• The UBS bank shared a list of  account holders with the US government - if the government wants HSBC and UBS operations in India can be shut down and their bosses arrested.
• HSBC's top officers should be arrested and cases should be made out for waging war against India.
• HSBC's operations in India should be suspended - they should be forced to make a disclosure of accounts held by Indians - and the government should make it public.
  

Prashant Bhushan then took over the press conference: Highlights of what he said.

• To those people who have been accusing us of hit-and-run tactics, the sheer scale of corruption is such that even one expose a week not enough.
• We are exposing cases that point to a systemic problem in the country.
• This is only the tip of the iceberg - the accounts in HSBC are a small proportion of accounts held by Indians abroad.
• Then entire ruling establishment is working at the behest of powerful people like the Ambanis.

Arvind Kejriwal speaks again

• How do your investigative agencies function? When HSBC apologises, is that the end of the investigation?
• Send the rest of them to HSBC, they will get an apology too.
• Is this a criminal investigation, can the government say that because the bank apologized, there should be no investigation.
• Banks are notorious for masking the identity of owners.
• Mukesh Ambani says Congress is in his pocket. I think any government that comes into power is in his pocket.