New Delhi: Special Investigation Team chairman Justice M.B. Shah said any investigation against those who were named by the Centre of having money in foreign bank accounts was not easy.
“It is not easy because when a department also issues a notice, it takes time. The parties and assesses need time for replies,” he said.
He denied that the government’s probe in the black money case was an eyewash. “It is not an eyewash. Nothing can be said to be an eyewash. On the contrary, we have got some results,” he said.
The income-tax department is waiting to take the SIT’s permission to initiate prosecution against around 300 of those on the list. The I-T department plans to investigate them under Sections 277 (false statement in verification) and 276D (failure to produce documents).
Some 120 of these cases are already under prosecution. The I-T department has already realised Rs 200 crore in taxes and penalties from some of these account-holders, who have accepted holding these accounts abroad.
On Wednesday attorney-general Mukul Rohatgi submitted before the SC the documents which contained the correspondence with the French authorities, the names of account-holders and the status report of the probe conducted so far. He said the deadline for probe under the I-T Act into these accounts is March 31, 2015.
