Panama probe: Amitabh Bachchan, others under IT scanner

Amitabh Bachchan

The Income Tax Department has begun actively pursuing names who were tied to the Panama Papers leaks in 2016, including actor Amitabh Bachchan, according to a report in The Times of India.

As part of the effort, the Centre has sent a senior Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) officer to the British Virgin Islands to access information.

The Caribbean island is considered to be one of the tax havens.

The IT department has also launched 33 prosecutions linked to names revealed in the Panama Papers and is probing others.

Several film stars, politicians and businessmen were named in the Panama Papers leaks. Bachchan has denied wrongdoing and has maintained that his remittances abroad were in line with Indian regulations. He has also denied links with the firms named in the Panama Papers.

On August 10, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told the parliament that every account named in the leak is being probed. He also said that nobody would be punished here without a proper process.

"We have a rule of law. We do not have a system like the neighbouring country where you remove first and then have a trial," Jaitley said, referring to the suspension of Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif by Pakistan's Supreme Court last month after a corruption probe found irregularities in his and his family’s known sources of income and wealth.

Jaitley also said that the names will remain confidential as long as the matter is under investigation and that the confidentiality clause would cease to exist once the matter reaches the court.

India has joined a global task-force on shared intelligence and collaboration to pursue progress on the Panama Papers investigations.