Black money: AAP attacks government over selective names

New Delhi, Oct 27 (IANS) The AAP on Monday accused the central government of being "selective" in revealing names of foreign bank account holders, asking it to make public all those with money stashed abroad.

Addressing a press conference here, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal said the government was not disclosing all the names because they knew the list contained the "names of those who are close to the Bharatiya Janata Party".

In its affidavit to the Supreme Court, the government revealed the names of two individuals – a promoter of the Dabur consumer goods company and a mining company and its five directors – while alleging they had funds in bank accounts abroad over which proceedings had been initiated for tax evasion.

Kejriwal said: "On Nov 9, 2012, we had disclosed the statements made by three individuals – namely Parminder Singh Kalra, Vikram Dhirani and Praveen Sawhney – before Income Tax authorities, when their premises were raided."

He asked: "These three individuals admitted to the offence. Surprisingly, their names do not appear in the list of three people whose names have been disclosed by the finance ministry today. Why?"

He added: "Today, the BJP government has disclosed three names, one of which happens to be Pradeep Burman. This name was there in the list disclosed by us two years back and hence, it further validates our earlier disclosure."