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New Delhi: The AAP Monday accused the central government of being “selective” in revealing names of foreign bank account holders, asking it to make public all those with money stashed abroad.
Addressing a press conference here, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal said the government was not disclosing all the names because they knew the list contained the “names of those who are close to the Bharatiya Janata Party”.
In its affidavit to the Supreme Court, the government revealed the names of three individuals – Pradip Burman, director of the Burman Group, Pankaj Chimanlal Lodya, a Rajkot-based bullion trader and Radha S Timblo, a Goa-based miner and owner of Timblo Pvt Ltd – while alleging they had funds in bank accounts abroad over which proceedings had been initiated for tax evasion.
Kejriwal said: “On Nov 9, 2012, we had disclosed the statements made by three individuals – namely Parminder Singh Kalra, Vikram Dhirani and Praveen Sawhney – before Income Tax authorities, when their premises were raided.”
He asked: “These three individuals admitted to the offence. Surprisingly, their names do not appear in the list of three people whose names have been disclosed by the finance ministry today. Why?”
He added: “Today, the BJP government has disclosed three names, one of which happens to be Pradeep Burman. This name was there in the list disclosed by us two years back and hence, it further validates our earlier disclosure.”
Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan had addressed a press conference on 9th November 2012, in which it was disclosed that the following names feature in this list:
Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani, Anil Dhirubhai Ambani, Motech Software Private Ltd (Reliance Group company), Reliance Industries Ltd, Sandeep Tandon, Anu Tandon, Kokila Dhirubhai Ambani, Naresh Kumar Goyal, Burmans (3 family members), Yashovardhan Birla.
