-The Indian Express
CBI director Amar Pratap Singh declared today that “if the king is immoral, so will be his subjects”, and sought “ethics in governance” while addressing an Interpol anti-corruption programme.
In a hint at scams involving ministers, Singh said: “I am prompted to recall a famous verse from ancient Indian scriptures, which says ‘Yatha raja tatha praja’.”
Singh said $ 500 billion (nearly Rs 24 lakh crore) had been stashed away illegally by Indians in tax havens abroad, and that Indians were the biggest depositors in Swiss banks.
In several high profile cases, “we find that money is taken to Dubai, Singapore, Mauritius, from where it goes to Switzerland and then British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands and other such tax havens”, Singh said. “For the criminals, all it involves is setting up a few shell companies and then making layered transfers from one account to another…”
Other top officers like CAG Vinod Rai and CIC Satyananda Mishra have earlier taken digs at the government over black money.