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Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has been summoned to appear before the Enforcement Directorate in the Panama Papers case. She had sought adjournments on two occasions earlier.

The plea of adjournment was made to the special investigation team probing the Panama Papers case.

The Panama Papers pertain to leaked documents that point towards fraud and tax evasion by many individuals and corporate entities across the world.

ALSO READ | Panama Papers scandal: Will government take action against Indians named?

The leaked documents were originally obtained by German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung. At least 12,000 of these fresh documents are linked to Indians. The previous leak was reported in 2016 where more than 500 Indians were named in the documents of Mossack Fonseca, a law firm based in tax haven Panama.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s name featured in the list of 500 Indians who were named in the massive leak of 11.5 million tax documents exposing their secret offshore dealings. Superstar Amitabh Bachchan’s name also featured in the list.

The report stated that 426 Indians are under the scrutiny of the multi-agency group (MAG) set up by the central government. Black money of over Rs 1,000 crore had been detected by the MAG probing the leads from 2016 leak.

Earlier in July, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan had alleged that he was offered Rs 1,000 crore on behalf of Shahbaz Sharif to withdraw the Panama Papers case against former PM Nawaz Sharif, who was also named in the case. The Supreme Court of Pakistan took action against Nawaz Sharif and disqualified him for dishonesty and ordered corruption cases to be filed against him and his children.

Read | Panama Papers return with more stings, all India needs to know

Two years after the first leak of documents, a fresh leak of Panama Papers was reported. Those Indian nationals whose links to offshore entities were confirmed in the fresh leak included:

  • Shiv Vikram Khemka – SUN group patriarch Nand Lal Khemka’s son
  • Actor Amitabh Bachchan
  • Jehangir Sorabjee – the son of former attorney general Soli Sorabjee
  • DLF Group’s KP Singh and his immediate family
  • Anurag Kejriwal – the former Delhi Lok Satta Party leader
  • Navin Mehra of Mehrasons Jewellers
  • Hajra Iqbal Memon- Wife of underworld don Iqbal Mirchi.

Actor Abhishek Bacchan had also recently been summoned for questioning by the ED. The summons to Aishwarya and Abhishek were issued under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999.

The Panama Papers case is being probed by an SIT consisting of officers from ED, Income Tax, and other agencies.

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India today

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