No problem with anyone probing black money: Arun Jaitley

Responding to the Supreme Court's directive to the Centre to disclose names of all the account holders in the black money case, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday evening said that the government has no problem in disclosing any names. "The government has no difficulty in placing the entire list and the same will be placed before the court tomorrow," he said. Jaitley added that the government shall place the list before the court. "The government has already given the list to the court constituted Special Investigating Team on June 27. The government is keen that by whatever procedure in accordance with law we must get to the root of the matter," the Finance Minister said. Jaitley said that the list will be given to the Supreme Court in a sealed envelope. However, he refrained from commenting whether the government is ready open to make the names public. "The truth about these names and also these accounts must come out so that penal action can be taken against the people and the money lying there can be brought back to India," Jaitley said. He also denied that the government was not protecting anyone by and agreed that law must be followed. "There is nobody the government wants to protect in this case so that those whose names have come must really be investigated and punished according to law," he said. "The government is also keen that the procedure followed must be such that the reciprocating countries continue to cooperate with India," he added. The Supreme Court had on Tuesday directing the Central Government to disclose the names of all the account holders by Wednesday. The Supreme Court had pulled up the Centre for seeking modification of its order on black money on disclosing names of account holders in foreign banks. "We won't change even a word of our order," the apex court had told the government in clear words. Talking tough, the SC had further said, "new regime at Centre can't ask for modification of the order when it was passed in an open court and accepted by the government." The next hearing of the case is scheduled on Wednesday at 10:00 am. The apex court had questioned the Centre as of why it was providing a "protective umbrella" to foreign bank account holders. "You do not do anything. Just pass information of account holders to us and we will pass order for further probe," the court directed. The Central Government had on Monday revealed the names of three businessmen who allegedly have black money stashed in foreign banks. It has been maintaining that it cannot make all the names public as it would violate the double taxation treaty signed by the UPA government.