New Delhi, Jan. 26: Despite the government toughening its stand on disclosure of the names of 26 Indians with “black accounts” in Liechetenstein’s LGT Bank made known to New Delhi by Germany, the focus of Thursday’s hearing in the Supreme Court is likely to be on how the United States managed to get data about its 4,500 citizens’ secret accounts from Switzerland and why India should not follow the same route.
Senior counsel Anil Diwan, appearing for Ram Jethmalani and some other prominent citizens who had filed a PIL seeking disclosure of the names of Indians with black accounts abroad and bringing unaccounted money back, had at the last hearing begun referring to the US success story when the case was adjourned for hearing on Thursday.
The US justice department and its Internal Revenue Service had in June 2010 got Swiss legislators to approve the handing over of data relating to 4,450 Americans’ “secret accounts” in Switzerland’s largest bank UBS after several rounds of negotiations.