Eminent lawyer Ram Jethmalani has urged Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to share with the Special Investigation Team (SIT) the names of persons who had stashed black money abroad. “All investigation in the matter of black money stashed away in foreign tax havens is by order of the Supreme Court rested in the SIT which exists. It is your duty to take no steps in investigation without information supplied to the SIT and its permission obtained,” the expelled BJP member, who is a petitioner in the apex court on the issue, said in a letter to the Minister on Thursday.
He said that names should be sent to the SIT so that they could tell the Swiss authorities what to do.
Mr. Jethmalani said: “Your action in approaching the Supreme Court with the kind of petition that you have filed is one of the most ill-advised steps taken... the DTAT (Double Taxation Avoidance Treaty) or any equivalent document is not to be used and cannot be used.”
The Hindu ’s email on the letter to the official spokesperson for the Finance Ministry did not elicit any response.
Stating that the UPA government had earlier not accepted Germany’s offer for sharing the names without raising the DTAT issue, Mr. Jethmalani alleged: “I strongly suspect that your conduct shows that you too like many others do not want the truth to come out. Your public statements, the thing on one day and another the next day, are product of a troubled conscience and mental confusion, a deadly combination.”
(With additional reporting from Puja Mehra)
