New Delhi:
The Supreme Court once again confronted the government today over the poverty of information about black money sent abroad by Indians. "Is it from arms dealing... drug peddling? These are very serious issues," the court observed while reprimanding the government for focusing on tax evasion in its inquiry into black money.
A petition filed by a group of people including former Law Minister Ram Jethmalani asked that the government be made to recover crores of black money from foreign bank accounts. Mr Jethmalani believes the amount of money adds up to one trillion dollars.
So far, the government has told the court that while it has a list of 26 Indians who hold accounts in tax haven Lichenstein, the names of the account-holders cannot be made public because of treaties between India and Germany. The names have been delivered to the court.
But the Supreme Court said the government needs to be much more pro-active about initiating action against the account-holders.
"What have you done once you have come to know about the source of money? We are not talking about unknown names, these names are known to you now. We want to know what action is being taken," the court said.
The case will next be heard in exactly a week.