The Supreme Court on Tuesday called for the multi-agency probe (MAG) reports into the Panama Papers leak case which revealed the names of 500 Indians having offshore deposits.
Dealing with a PIl demanding for a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to be set up to probe the criminality linked to each of the unaccounted deposits revealed in the Panama Papers leak, a Bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra asked the Government to produce the reports in a sealed cover before April 18, the next date of hearing.
Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the Centre, informed the Court that following the leak, the Government constituted a multi-agency group in April last year comprising officers of the Central Board of Direct Taxes, Reserve Bank of India, Enforcement Directorate and Financial Intelligence Unit. This group held several meetings and submitted five reports till date to the SIT on black money, headed by retired Supreme Court judge MB Shah. A sixth report is in the process of being filed.
The Bench, also comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar and MM Shantanagoudar assured the petitioner that after going through the reports, it will form an opinion whether the matter required further probe.