An article written by Ajit Doval before he was appointed National Security Advisor in May 2014 giving an in-depth analysis of black money, its origins, the methods to chase and repatriate found a hearing in the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
The article was part of an application filed by senior advocate Ram Jethmalani before a three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India H.L. Dattu, and it identifies “corruption as one of the major sources of black money”.
In his application, Mr. Jethmalani said Mr. Doval's article dated February 21, 2011 and titled 'India’s Plundered Money Abroad – Can we get it back ?' was downloaded from the latter's personal blog.
The application quotes the article saying that “one of the major sources is huge amounts of money paid as bribes to corrupt politicians, bureaucrats and middlemen in major deals and projects”.
“The cuts and kickbacks are hidden in the project costs of these mega deals or procurement orders. Through various dubious ways they are channelised to accounts of corrupt politicians and bureaucrats or their proxies,” the application quoted from Mr. Doval's article.
“Favours in defence deals, licenses and permissions for mega projects, grant of infrastructure contracts, amending or formulating rules and procedures that provide undue benefit to a particular company etc. are the considerations for payment. As most of these big companies or their subsidiaries maintain foreign accounts the movement of money goes undetected. It is estimated that nearly 60 per cent of the illegal money stashed abroad comes from this source,” the application sited Mr. Doval as having written.
The article, according to the application, identified organized crime mafias who engage in large scale property deals, drug trafficking, gunrunning, human trafficking, terrorist related activities, etc as “another” source of black money.
“Nearly 10 per cent to 12 per cent of the illegal money stashed abroad is through these sources,” the application quoted from the article.
The article also recommended that the “Government of India should suo moto register an omnibus criminal case against suspected unidentified persons who have been indulging in criminal activities and unauthorizedly transferring the money to tax havens abroad”.
Mr. Jethmalani quoted how Mr. Doval wrote that cases of black money may be transferred to a special team of the CBI and investigated under supervision of the Supreme Court.
“He (Mr. Doval) has also opined that every electoral candidate “should file an affidavit before elections that he does not hold illegal money abroad,” the application said, adding that the same should be applied to RBI Governor, SEBI Chairman, CBI Director, Cabinet Secretary, IB Director, RAW Chief, CVC, etc.
