Black money: Modi protecting culprits, says Ram Jethmalani

New Delhi, Oct 18: Accusing Narendra Modi-led NDA government of trying to protect the culprits who stashed money in overseas banks, senior advocate Ram Jethmalani on whose plea the Supreme Court had constituted Special Investigating Team (SIT) on black money, strongly objected to Centre's stand and said that matter be not heard.

"Matter should not be entertained even for a day. Such application should have been made by the culprits and not by the government," Jethmalani said, adding that Centre is trying to protect the people who have stashed black money in foreign banks.

Jethmalani, who claimed that around Rs 70 lakh crore was stashed in foreign banks, said that he has written a letter to Prime Minister on this issue and his response is awaited.

The Narendra Modi government, which promised to bring back black money stashed by Indians in foreign banks, today toed the line of UPA regime by informing the Supreme Court that it cannot disclose such details given by countries with which India has double taxation avoidance agreement(DTAA).

In an application with annexures running into about 800 pages, the Centre contended that it cannot disclose all information as the foreign countries, with which India has double taxation avoidance agreement, have objected to making them public.

In the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls, BJP spearheaded by Narendra Modi had promised to bring back black money kept by Indians in overseas bank and slammed UPA government for not taking effective action and accusing it of shielding the corrupt. After assuming power in May, the Modi government had pledged to fulfil its pre-poll promise.