HSBC black money list: ED order based on conjectures, says Burman

Former Dabur group director Pradip Burman, whose Rs 208.7 million assets have been seized by the ED in connection with a Swiss bank black money case,  said on Wednesday, he will "contest" the order and that it is based on conjectures.

The central probe agency had yesterday issued an order under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) seizing 50,000 tax-free government bonds of HUDCO and IRFC as part of its probe against those Indians who were named in the leaked HSBC list of Indians who held assets abroad, in an alleged illegal manner.

"The seizure order of some bonds of Pradip Burman under Section 37A of FEMA is unmerited and unlawful. It is based on suspicion and conjectures without there being lawful evidence or material justifying the same.

"Incorrect view and facts have been reported. This order and issue involved is being contested by us and we are confident that we will get justice and relief under law from authorities/courts," a spokesperson for Burman said.

He added that there is "no show cause notice, let alone any lawful order against Burman, holding him to be in default under FEMA."

The Income Tax Department had earlier filed a charge sheet against Burman before a Delhi court in this instance and the trial in the case is yet to commence.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) took over the case from it.

The ED had said Burman's assets in the country were seized, in lieu of assets held abroad, after it was found that he deposited $3.2 million in his account with HSBC bank in Zurich in Switzerland and that he "did not" show this amount in his IT Returns filed during 2007-08, despite declaring it to the taxman that this was his earning.

This case is one among the list of 628 Indians, who figured in a list of account holders in HSBC Bank's Geneva branch, that India had obtained from the French government in 2007.