Congress welcomes SC directive on foreign account holders

The Congress Tuesday welcomed the Supreme Court directive to the government to furnish names of all Indian foreign account holders given by the German, French and Swiss authorities, and said the "devious attempts" of the Narendra Modi government aimed at "hoodwinking" has been rejected.

The Supreme Court Tuesday directed the central government to furnish, in a sealed cover by Wednesday, the names of all Indian foreign account holders.

Congress general secretary Ajay Maken said the court had come down heavily on the Modi government.

"The direction of the Supreme Court has vindicated the stand being articulated by the Congress ever since the government started playing this convoluted game of partial and selective leak of names," Maken said.

He said the government's "double speak" on the matter has been exposed in the two affidavits it had given in the court.

Maken said that in the affidavit of Oct 17, the government had told the court that it was unable to disclose the names since it was bound by the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements.

He said the government revised its stand in the affidavit of Oct 27 "with the sole purpose of hoodwinking the court".

"However, the court today (Tuesday) rejected all of such devious attempts and it was a welcome step," he said.

Maken accused the Bharatiya Janata Party and Modi of misleading the people.

He claimed the BJP leaders had promised not only to disclose the names but also bring back to the country all the black money stashed abroad within 100 days.

"While Baba Ramdev had the put the number of such account holders at 50,000 and pegged the amount stashed away at Rs.4 lakh crores, Rajnath Singh had promised to bring back the same within 100 days," he said.

He said the BJP leaders also promised to distribute the black money among the people of the country.

A bench of Chief Justice H.L. Dattu, Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai and Justice Madan B. Lokur Tuesday told Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi that the government need not do anything but just disclose the names to the court and it will decide whether the matter should be investigated by the income tax authorities or by the Central Bureau of Investigation.