Kejriwal demands action against HSBC officials

Reacting to an investigative report in the Indian Express on Monday that reveals names of businessmen and politicians who have held accounts in HSBC’s Swiss private banking arm, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener Arvind Kejriwal demanded that the BJP government at the Centre should act against HSBC officials.

In a number of tweets on Monday, Mr. Kejriwal said: “Why doesn't BJP government act against HSBC officials? They will spill the beans. US did precisely that.”

Mr. Kejriwal also raised the question of inaction on the part of Congress first, and the BJP now, in probing such accounts where funds have been stashed away in secret accounts abroad because “some of these people claim to have both the BJP and the Congress in their pockets.”

In another tweet, the AAP leader and former Delhi Chief Minister said the names revealed by the Indian Express on Monday were there in a press conference held by him on November 9, 2012. “We stand vindicated,” Mr. Kejriwal said in his tweet.

The

Indian Express said it had partnered in a three-month long global project with the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalism (ICIJ) and the Paris-based

Le Monde newspaper. “The investigation revealed 1,195 Indian HSBC clients, roughly double the 628 names that French authorities gave to the Government in 2011. The new revelation is expected to significantly widen the scale and scope of the ongoing probe by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) appointed by the Supreme Court,” the newspaper said.

It said the balance against 1195 names stood at Rs. 25,420 crore. The report has named noted politicians, NRIs, diamond traders, businessmen as those who were HSBC clients and held accounts in that bank during 2006-07 period.