A day after the world was rocked by the revelations made by what is now being called the Panama Papers, the Indian Express has disclosed a second list of Indians who were involved in offshore companies.
On day one of the leaks, Amitabh Bachchan and his daughter-in-law Aishwarya Bachchan along with DLF owner KP Singh were named.
In the second list, the owner of Mehrasons Jewellers Ashwani Kumar Mehra and his family members, industrialists Gautam and Karan Thapar have also been named for being involved with offshore companies in tax havens.
Other businessmen like Satish Govind Samtani, Vishlav Bahadur, Harish Mohnani and a retired MP government official Prabhash Sankhla have also been named for having incorporated offshore entities.
Other businessmen include Ashok Malhotra, Ranjeev Dahuja and Kapil Sain Goel of Bealls International Corporation and agriculture equipments seller Vivek Jain are also named in the list as a director of an offshore company.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ordered a multi-agency team to investigate the ‘Panama Papers’. The government is under significant pressure to reveal and recover black or untaxed money, a promise stressed by the PM in his election campaign. The Supreme Court is monitoring the findings of a Special Investigating Team or SIT of experts.
And it’s not just India that has begun investigations into the leak.
The United States has also begun reviewing the leaked papers, which lifted the lid on the murky offshore financial dealings of a slew of politicians and celebrities across the world.
Panama Papers exposes the offshore links of some of the world’s most prominent people, including 12 current and former world leaders, and reveals how associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin secretly shuffled as much as $2 billion through banks and shadow companies.
Spain, France and several other countries have also launched tax evasion probes.
Image: A company list showing the Mossack Fonseca law firm is pictured on a sign at the Arango Orillac Building in Panama City. Photograph: Carlos Jasso/Reuters
