Black money: High-level panel to monitor probe,Govt tells SC

The government said the multi-disciplinary committee for the investigations and other steps likely to be taken,can co-opt members not below the rank of joint secretary for effective implementation of the work in consultation with the secretaries in the Home,Foreign and Defence ministries. The secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat can also be co-opted as a member.

The government’s stand came in response to the proposal of a bench comprising Justices B Sudershan Reddy and S S Nijjar,who had favoured setting up of an independent special investigating team (SIT) headed by a retired judge to monitor the case.

Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium told the bench that the co-ordinated mechanism has been put in place to deal with cases of black money and it would be headed by the Revenue Secretary.

Subramanium said the issue of black money would not be limited to Pune businessman Hasan Ali Khan.

“As far as the security angle of the case is concerned,it would be probed by the CBI which would also deal with Hasan Ali Khan case. Money laundering is to be investigated by the ED while RBI should be asked to look into the black money stashed in UBS and other Swiss banks,” Subramanium said.

The government submitted that it was investigating 36 cases involving black money and informed the court that it had entered into agreement with 26 countries under which it could attach the black money stashed in their banks by Indian citizens.