Ex-MLA seeks CBI probe into Panama Papers revelations

Aurangabad: Manik Bhimrao Jadhav, 61, an agriculturist and former MLA from Latur district, has approached the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court seeking directions to the Union government and other authorities for a CBI probe over revelations made in the Panama paper leaks.
The petitioner, a social activist who was known for spearheading agitations for sugarcane growers and sugar factory workers, has filed the PIL through lawyer Satish Talekar.
The petition states "The petitioner being aggrieved by inaction on the part of government to initiate inquiry either under the Commission of Enquiry Act, 1952 or under the RBI Act and Guidelines or FEMA 1999 or the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 or the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015, against those Indians who have acquired companies in order to hide their assets and remove all traces of the funds belonging to them."
The PIL came up before the bench of Justice S S Shinde and Justice Sangitrao Patil for preliminary hearing, when the bench asked the petitioner to deposit a sum of Rs one lakh before the hearing commenced. When he pleaded that he could not deposit such a huge amount and was just an ex-MLA, the bench asked him to deposit Rs 25,000 by Thursday. The date of preliminary hearing has been fixed on April 11, said Talekar.
Jadhav has made the finance ministry, secretary of ministry of home affairs, director (CBI), director of Enforcement Directorate, director general of directorate of revenue intelligence, chief editor of The Indian Express, the firm Mossack Fonseca and Anurag Kejriwal, whose name has appeared in Panama paper leaks.