ED grills Aishwarya Rai Bachchan for five hours in Panama Papers case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) questioned actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan for five hours in connection with the 2016 Panama Papers global tax leaks case.

Aishwarya Bachchan, 48, the daughter-in-law of superstar Amitabh Bachchan, was earlier asked to depose before the agency in Delhi.

The ED had called her over reports that she parked her money in a company based in the British Virgin Islands.

Earlier in the day, Rajya Sabha MP and Aishwarya’s mother-in-law Jaya Bachchan lashed out at the BJP in the House over “personal comments” allegedly passed against Aishwarya. India Today quoted her saying “their bad days would begin soon”.

“I don’t wanna make any personal comment on anyone. What happened was very unfortunate and they should not have spoken the way they did,” Jaya Bachchan said. “Spoken to a lot of MPs but no one knows what the exact comment was about actress.”

A verbal spat had broken out between Jaya Bachchan and the ruling party section, following which Opposition raised protests. The House was then adjourned.

Panama case

The ED has been probing the case since 2016, when the global leaks came to light. It later issued notices to the Bachchan family asking them to explain their foreign remittances since 2004, under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) of the RBI.

Dubbed as the Panama Papers, it is an investigation of numerous records of world leaders and celebrities, who had reportedly stashed their money abroad in different offshore companies.

Panamanian legal firm Mossack Fonseca by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists released the list of the world leaders and celebrities associated with the Papers, which also contained the names of many celebrities from India as well.

Also read: ED can withhold names of tax evaders in Panama Papers: CIC

Some of the Indians celebrities reportedly floated offshore entities at a time when it was illegal, while some others took a technically convenient view that the acquired companies are not the same as the incorporated companies, and others had bunched their annual quota of remittances to subscribe to shares in an offshore entity acquired at an earlier date.

Some others had received income earned abroad and deposited it in the entity to avoid tax. Some had opened bank accounts to keep payoffs in government contracts, or held “proceeds of crime” or property bought with money made illegally in various trusts.

The important features of the offshore entities in jurisdictions in Panama, Seychelles, British Virgin Islands and Bahamas, are that they offer secrecy of information relating to the ultimate beneficiary owner and zero tax on income generated.

In fact, in Panama, individuals can ask for bearer shares, where the owner’s name is not mentioned anywhere. Besides, it costs little or nothing to set up an entity abroad. The Registered Agent charges a few hundred dollars to incorporate an entity. It doesn’t take much time to incorporate one either. Companies are available off-the-shelf and can be registered in a couple of days.

Also read: Pandora Papers say world leaders, celebrities hid assets abroad

Apart from Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Amitabh Bachchan, the list includes other celebrities such as actor Ajay Devgn, DLF’s promoter KP Singh, and Gautam Adani’s brother Vinod Adani. The list also included some politicians including BJP MP Jayant Sinha, ex-BJP MP Ravindra Kishore Sinha, and former Lok Satta Party’s Delhi President Anurag Kejriwal.

(With inputs from Agencies)