I-T dept letting off big fish: Kejri

MUMBAI: Ignoring denials issued previously by the Ambanis, Aam Aadmi Party ’s Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday reiterated allegations that they held Swiss bank accounts and ‘revealed’ their alleged account numbers.“A few days ago, I exposed that Anil and Mukesh Ambani have Swiss bank accounts. They have not admitted their fraud. I have the Swiss bank account numbers of Anil and Mukesh Ambani here with me. Shall I read them?” Kejriwal asked a packed hall at the Times of India Literary Carnival on Sunday. “5090160983 and 5090160984, HSBC Bank,” he said.A spokesperson for Anil Ambani rejected the allegations. “Mr Anil D Ambani had no bank account with HSBC in Geneva. It is regrettable that such baseless allegations are being made at the behest of vested interests,” the spokesperson said. Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) spokesperson rejected the allegation against Mukesh Ambani, reiterating a statement made by RIL earlier in November.Reliance Industries Ltd on Sunday again denied Arvind Kejriwal’s allegation that Mukesh Ambani holds a secret Swiss bank account.“We had issued a statement on November 9, 2012 that categorically stated that neither Reliance Industries Limited nor Mr Mukesh Ambani have or had any illegitimate accounts anywhere in the world,” an RIL spokesperson said. Last month, Kejriwal had alleged that Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani had Rs 100 crore each in Swiss bank accounts while their mother Kokilaben also had a Swiss bank account which had no balance.Kejriwal and his colleague, lawyer Prashant Bhushan, had also accused multinational bank HSBC of running a huge hawala operation to launder thousands of crores of illicit money belonging to leading industrialists such as the Ambani brothers, Mukesh and Anil, the Burmans of Dabur Naresh Goyal of Jet Airways , Yashovardhan Birla and Congress MP Annu Tandon . All of them had denied the allegations.Kejriwal said the income tax department had received the Swiss bank details in 2011 but had chosen not to act against the big fish on the list. “The papers are with the I-T department,” he said. “They (the Ambanis) could have been prosecuted but nothing has been done,” he said.Earlier, Kejriwal had demanded that the government should reveal the names and amounts of all 700 on the list and explain why it has ad0 opted a different method of inve-stigation against high income individuals while conducting raids on smaller businessmen. He had said that the government’s statement released a day after he made his allegation in November had proved that the list was authentic and that the tax department had decided to proceed selectively on the list which was handed over by France.Citing the example of the US and UK governments, Kejriwal had questioned the government’s reluctance to demand information related to Indians who held secret accounts in foreign banks. While Kejriwal had made the allegations against HSBC and top Indian businessmen at a news conference last month, this time he chose to make his revelations at a gathering of common citizens at the Times Literary Carnival, who roared and whistled their approval and practically drowned out the numbers which the activist-turned-politician read out.He has made a string of allegations against politicians, political parties and businessmen in the run-up to the launch of his political party, hoping to cash in on the anti-corruption sentiment in the country. In November, Reliance Industries, the Anil Ambani group, Jet Airways and the Burmans of Dabur had rejected allegations of holding illegitimate Swiss bank accounts levelled by Kejriwal saying they were “baseless and false”.A Dabur statement had said the accounts were opened by the Dabur family when they were NRIs and were legally allowed to open such accounts. HSBC had also said that it “takes compliance with the law, wherever it operates, very seriously”. Kejriwal had alleged that an RIL group firm, Motech Software Private Ltd, had Rs 2,100 crore in such bank accounts. He had also alleged that Annu Tandon, a first-time Congress MP from Unnao in UP and her husband, late Sandeep Tandon, a former IRS official who advised RIL on taxation matters, had Rs 125 crore each in Swiss bank accounts. Annu Tandon had termed Kejriwal’s November allegation as “a load of lies” and had said she would take legal action against him.A day after Kejriwal made the allegations in November, the government had issued a statement saying appropriate action had been taken in the case and further action was on. However, it did not elaborate on the names and citied the confidentiality clause under the Double Taxation Avoidance Convention with France which stipulates that information can be used for tax purposes only. Kejriwal and Bhusan had demanded the suspension of HSBC’s India operations and arrest of its officials, prosecution of the industrialists concerned and disclosure of names of all Indians who held accounts in foreign branches of different banks.The activists had also attacked the government for not taking action against HSBC and its clients engaged in money laundering in disregard of “strong evidence'”, specifically accusing the then finance minister Pranab Mukherjee of covering up the racket when it came to light in July 2011.