Panama Papers: Enforcement Directorate grills Aishwarya Rai Bachchan

New Delhi, December 20

Bollywood star Aishwarya Rai Bachchan appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday to join the probe in connection with the 2016 ‘Panama Papers’ tax leak case. Her statement was recorded under the Foreign Exchange Management Act.

The actress handed over a few documents to the investigators. Names of several world leaders and celebrities who had stashed away money in offshore companies were mentioned in the ‘Panama Papers’, an investigation of records with Panama’s law firm Mossack Fonseca by Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The leaked tranche had 426 India-linked cases.

Officials said the ED has been probing the case linked to the Bachchans since 2016-17. Aishwarya, the ICIJ said, was found to have links with an offshore entity in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) created in 2005.

Her family was stated to be part of this offshore entity that had an “initial authorised capital of USD 50,000”. The company was reportedly dissolved in 2008. — TNS