Panama Papers: Amitabh And Aishwarya Rai Bachchan Among Alleged Tax Evaders Outed By World's Largest Data Leak

Update: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that a multi-agency committee has been setup to look into the Panama papers leak. It will involve officials from RBI and CBDT. He also said that those who did not take advantage of the compliance window last year to declare illegal assets abroad will find ¡°such adventurism extremely costly¡±.

Dubbed as the largest data leak in history, Panama Papers, a massive online document leak has thrown open a Pandora's box, with some of the biggest international celebrities and influencers being accused of tax evasion.

USA Today

According to Indian Express there are as many as 500 Indians in the list. Here are some of the top figures.

Aishwarya Rai

She and her family members were registered in 2005 as directors of Amic Partners Limited.

BCCL

Her status was later changed to share holder before the company was dissolved in 2008

Amitabh Bachchan

He was appointed director in at least four offshore shipping companies set up in 1993 in British Virgin Islands (BVI), Bahamas.

BCCL

KP Singh

DLF promoters KP Singh acquired a company registered in BVI in 2010. His family's three offshore entities hold almost $10 million.

BCCL

Sameer Gehlaut

Indiabulls owner holds UK realty via Bahamas, Jersey. He acquired at least top London properties through family entities.

BCCL

Shishir K Bajoria

He belongs to one of the oldest business families in Kolkata trading in jute and tea. He is the promoter of SK Bajoria Group.

Onkar Kanwar

His offshore entity was J&S Systems Corporation at BVI.

Harish Salve

His offshore entities were Crestbright Ltd, Pyebush Group Ltd, Edenval Ltd at BVI.

Madhyamam

Jehangir Sorabjee

His offshore entity was Moonglow Investments Global Ltd at BVI.

Vinod Adani

Vinod Adani, is the brother of busyness tycoon Gautam Adani.

Iqbal Mirchi

Fugitive underworld don Muhammed Iqbal Memon,aka Iqbal Mirchi is also among those featured in the list of Indians.

Deccan Chronicle

Politicians who figure on the list are Shishir Bajoria from West Bengal and Anurag Kejriwal, the former chief of the Delhi unit of Loksatta Party.

What are they accused of?

As per Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines, Indian citizen were not allowed to start an overseas entity before 2003.

However, in 2004, for the first time RBI has allowed individuals to remit funds up to $25,000 a year under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS). But it never allowed Indian citizen to set up companies abroad.

In most of the cases in mentioned in the leak, companies were set up long before the rules were changed and the purpose was to park foreign exchange in a tax havens.