Black money: Modi govt not serious about bringing back illegal money, says Ram Jethmalani

New Delhi, April 21: Attacking the BJP government over the Black money issue, eminent lawyer Ram Jethmalani on Tuesday said that the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is not serious about bringing back the illegal money stashed in banks abroad.

"I have gone and met the Germans, they said that no effort has been made to take the money back," Jethmalani was quoted as saying in an IBN report.

Meanwhile, the

today asked the Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by former apex court judge Justice M B Shah, to file a fresh status report by May 12 on the progress made by it on

probe.

A bench comprising Chief Justice H L Dattu and justices Madan B Lokur and A K Sikri said that it has not received any new report and asked senior advocate Soli Sorabjee, appearing for SIT, to "request" the probe team to submit a fresh status report on or before May 12 so that "we can have a look at it before the summer vacation".

The apex court had on January 20 asked SIT to consider suggestions of senior advocate Ram Jethmalani who had filed a PIL in 2009 on the black money issue, on the way forward to bring the illegal money stashed in banks abroad.

The court had also said that the SIT, after considering the suggestions in accordance with law, would be sending "a copy of its report to that effect" in a sealed cover to the apex court.

During the hearing today, the bench said that it will go through the report first and then decide as to whether it can be given to Jethmalani and asked him to wait till that time.

Jethmalani, who is being represented by senior advocate Anil Divan, said, "there is a determined effort to frustrate the judgement (on black money)."

The bench also agreed with the concerns of Jethmalani on the issue and said, "we are with you on that". On the last date of hearing, the bench had said it was more interested in getting back the black money stashed abroad than the disclosure of names of illegal account holders.

However, the Bench had accepted Jethmalani's plea that the apex court-appointed SIT should consider his suggestions on bringing back black money stashed abroad.

Divan had alleged that "not a single rupee has come to this country" in the last six months and only some searches and attachment of properties have been carried out.

The apex court had also granted three weeks time to Divan to file reply to the stand of the Centre which has so far shown unwillingness to share documents concerning its correspondence with French Government on the issue.

OneIndia News

(With inputs from agencies)