New Delhi : The Congress Party on Thursday trained its guns on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Centre after the sensational leak of the Panama Papers, saying that Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Government has ignored the investigations of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) that alleges fraud holding of off-shore assets by Raman Singh’s son.
Addressing a press conference, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh alleged that the BJP-led Centre ignored the investigations of the ICIJ for last one year that alleges serious fraud holding of off-shore assets and money laundering in off-shore accounts through fictitious companies by Abhishek Singh, Member of Parliament from Rajanandgaon (Chhattisgarh), son of the Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh.
“In response to the ‘Panama Papers’ investigated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the government has set up a Multi Group Agency to investigate the matter further. While, the structure, domain, reach and authority of this agency is unclear the announcement is disappointing and inadequate,” the Congress leader said.
“The Indian list of tax evaders who have invested their ill-gotten wealth in Panama are known friends, well-wishers and ambassadors of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Global activity on the Panama Papers and public outcry has forced the NDA Government to act. But this is selective action as another investigation done by the ICIJ on Abhishek Singh,” he added.
“We demand that the role of Dr. Raman Singh and Abhishek Singh must be probed in a timely manner without any favour. The time to ignore these allegations and brazen them out is over. When this issue was raised by the Congress leadership in Chhattisgarh, the only answer from Abhishek Singh was that he has no foreign bank accounts. He was intentionally vague by not mentioning any investments in form of shareholdings in a company. These companies can then own assets or whatever,” he further said.
Senior advocate, Prashant Bhushan, had last year accused Abhishek Singh of having undisclosed foreign accounts.
“If you don’t have foreign accts @CGAbhishekSingh, who is Abhishak Singh whose accounts show your dad Raman Singh’s add? Will PM investigate? As per ICIJ website, Abhishek Singh with add of Raman Medical Store at CM Raman Singh’s residence has foreign accts!http://offshoreleaks.icij.org/nodes/68510,” Bhushan had tweeted. (ANI)