What is Panama Papers leak case?

In this case legal documents of a company named Mossack Fonseca were leaked. This data was released by a German newspaper "Suddeutsche Zeitung" under the name of Panama Papers on 3rd April 2016. Celebrities, businessmen and famous personalities of dozens of countries including of India were named in the papers who were accused of money laundering. The data from the years between 1977 and 2015 was given in the Panama Papers which was a shocking revelation.

It had around 500 Indian names including Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Ajay Devgun, Vijay Mallya, Harish Salve. Most wanted underworld don Iqbal Mirchi's name was also mentioned in the papers.

The matter had reached the apex court and later the government of India had formed a Multi Agency Group (MAG) to look into the matter. The CBDT, RBI, ED and FIU were asked to look into the entire matter.

Amitabh Bachchan was accused of incorporating four shell companies in May 2005. These were incorporated at British Virgin Islands. Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai were directors of the separate firms. Later Aishwarya Rai was made shareholder of a company. In 2008 the companies became inactive.


Panama Papers exposed alleged illegal properties worth around Rs 20,078 crore of 500 Indians who were named in the scam. In 2016 it came to light and the authorities came to know about the tax evasion by the accused and their alleged illegal properties. Panama Papers shared the details of those who formed small shell companies to evade huge taxes.

Now the matter is being probed by a Special Investigation Team. -IANS