The Swiss Government’s tax department has sent notices to seven Indians, who are holding bank accounts there. Five of them have been mentioned in the official Swiss Gazette while two have been reported by the foreign media. Sending notices to more than 1,000 people worldwide, the Swiss Federal Tax Administration (FTA) gave them an opportunity to file appeal against the findings of the tax authorities.
A large number of the US and Israeli citizens also figured in the list. According to reports, the Swiss authorities are acting under the US pressure. Delhi-based women Sneh lata Sawhney and Sangita Sawhney, who are associated with Sawhney Tyres Private limited, are among the five Indians in the gazette. The other two are Sayed Mohamed Masood and Chaud Kauser Masood Mohamed, who are owners of the Mumabi’s City limousine Group. The fifth person is Gurjit Singh Kochar of the Wave Group. Kochar is son-in-law of the assassinated liquor baron Ponty Chadha.
On Tuesday, the foreign media reported the names of two more Indians. They are Mumbai-based industrialist Yash Birla and Delhi-based business woman Ritika Sharma. According to the foreign media, the Swiss authorities were acting on the HSBC list leaked by a German whistleblower in 2012. The Swiss authorities dispatched the notices from January onward. Masood brothers were already under the radar of Enforcement Directorate. The ED has attached several properties of them in late 2012 in a money laundering case. Kochar and his family were subject to Income Tax raids in 2012. And the department had seized huge cash from their offices and homes.
In the past, the Swiss authorities maintained they could not act against the persons who figured in HSBC Bank data “stolen” by German whistleblower. They had alleged that German agencies bribed a banker to access their financial data and termed the expose as “stolen data”. later, the Swiss Government in January decided to act on the names revealed by the whistleblower.
The HSBC’s “leaked list” of 2012 has names of more than 600 Indians. The list was made public by advocate Prashant Bhushan and Arvind Kejriwal at a Press conference in late 2012. later in 2015, the international Consortium of Investigative Journalist (ICIJ) also released the list figuring several Indian industrialists.