The Indian Express, 16 June 2016
The Income Tax department is learnt to have contacted London-based lawyer Sarosh Zaiwalla in connection with offshore shipping companies that list Amitabh Bachchan as director.
Zaiwalla, who won the Bofors libel case for the Bachchan brothers in 1990, was, as The Indian Express first reported Monday, instrumental in bringing together Amitabh’s brother Ajitabh and late shipping magnate Mehernoosh Khajotia into a partnership that set up a bunch of offshore shipping companies in 1990-91.
Nile Shipping Ltd (Bahamas) was one of these companies from which Tramp Shipping Ltd (Bahamas), one of the companies where Amitabh Bachchan was director, acquired a ship in 1994.
The Income Tax department, it is learnt, wrote to Zaiwalla last month and requested his assistance in the ongoing inquiry into the Panama Papers. Contacted by The Indian Express, Zaiwalla said, in an email: “Yes, the Income Tax authority in India did contact me asking for assistance. My response was that I will consider their request if they approach me in a proper legal manner with a request through High Commission of India in London.”
As reported by The Indian Express, several company documents name Amitabh Bachchan as director in four offshore companies, record his participation in board meetings through teleconference, and acquisition of a ship belonging to company co-owned by Ajitabh Bachchan.
While Amitabh Bachchan denied any link to any of these companies, his brother Ajitabh claimed that Amitabh had nothing to do with his “legitimate shipping business”.
Earlier, in an email interview to The Indian Express, Zaiwalla confirmed that US $15 million of “Bachchans’ family wealth” was invested in an offshore shipping business partnership in 1990-92 and that he and Ajitabh Bachchan were partners.
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