714 Indians, including politicians, corporate chiefs and celebrities, on Monday figured in the revelation of Paradise Papers, featuring business dealings of the world’s most influential groups, companies and people in offshore tax havens.
The names started falling out as part of the hottest universal depiction by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), even as a number of of those named deprived of any wrongdoing.
The Indian signatories include Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan, defaulter businessman Vijay Mallya, corporate lobbyist Niira Radia, film star Sanjay Dutt’s wife Dilnashin, Union Minister Jayant Sinha and Rajya Sabha member R.K. Sinha, the ICIJ’s media partner in the nation, The Indian Express report, said.
The ICIJ, which worked with 95 media partners internationally for the inquiry, said it discovered 13.4 million leaked files from offshore law firms, majorly the Bermuda-based Appleby, and company registries in a number of of the secretive tax authority.
The ICIJ said the ‘Paradise Papers’ expose the offshore activities of some of the world’s most influential people and companies and the files were taken by the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung.
It, on the other hand, put out a disclaimer that “there are legitimate uses for offshore companies and trusts”, and it does not “mean to suggest or imply that any people, companies or other entities incorporated in the ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database have busted the law or otherwise acted offensively”.
The Indian names also incorporated those associated with the Sun TV-Aircel-Maxis case, Essar-Loop 2G case, SNC-Lavalin in which Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was named and then cleared and a case against Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy; as also entities connected to the Rajasthan ambulance scam that names an unit called Ziquista Healthcare (with Congress leader Sachin Pilot and former Minister P. Chidambaram’s son Karti as early honorary/independent directors).
Senior Bachchan wrote a long blog on Sunday, hours before the ‘Paradise Papers’ were published, explaining that he has always cooperated with the “system”, though he did not straightforwardly pass on to the latest leaks of names.
