Aishwarya questioned over alleged links to offshore firm

INDIAN actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan (left) on Monday (20) appeared before the country’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) in New Delhi for questioning in a case related to the 2016 ‘Panama Papers’ global tax leaks case, official sources said.

Bachchan, 48, is married to Abhishek, son of superstar Amitabh Bachchan. She was alleged to have have links with an offshore entity in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) created in 2005. Her family was also said to be part of this offshore entity that had an “initial authorised capital of $50,000 (£38000).” The company was reportedly dissolved in 2008.

She was being questioned and her statement was recorded under the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).

She is said to have submitted documents to the agency when she appeared before the agency at its office near India Gate.

Dubbed ‘Panama Papers’, an investigation in 2016 of records from Panama legal firm Mossack Fonseca by the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), named several world leaders and celebrities who were accused of stashing money abroad in offshore companies. Some of them are stated to hold valid accounts.

The leaks tranche had a total of 426 India-linked cases. India’s Enforcement Directorate has been probing the case linked to the Bachchan family since 2016-2017.

It issued notices to the family, asking them to explain their foreign remittances since 2004 under the Reserve Bank of India’s Liberalised Remittance Scheme and regulated under the FEMA. Some documents have been submitted by the Bachchan family.

At the time of the leaks in 2016, a media adviser of the former Miss World winner rejected the documents as “totally untrue and false”.

As with many of Fonseca’s clients, there is no evidence the Bollywood A-listers used their companies for improper purposes and having an offshore entity is not illegal.