Sharks escape ED net, only small fry get caught

The Enforcement Directorate has so far acted against only the small fry in investigations into the Panama Papers case, while the sharks are still out of the reach of the agency’s net, sources say.

The Panama Papers are an unprecedented leak of millions of files from the database of one of the world’s biggest offshore law firms, Mossack Fonseca. The records were obtained from an anonymous source by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, which shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The ICIJ then shared them with a large network of international partners. The Papers contain, among other things, details of 426 Indians, many of whom are allegedly involved in illegal offshore investments.

Sources said that the ED has not been given a free hand to act against all Indians named in the Panama Papers. The agency has not even sent notices to most of the high-profile individuals named in the exposé. “If we keep aside a few big names like Vijay Mallya, most of the individuals the ED is investigating are comparatively low-profile individuals,” a source close to the investigation told The Sunday Guardian.

Currently, the ED’s action as part of the investigations is limited to 47 Indians out of the 426 Indians named in the Papers. “Out of 47 cases ED is acting on, only in five cases, criminal prosecution complaints have been filed,