The International Consortium of Investigative Journalism (ICIJ) has put up data on their website which show, in great detail, Indian names and addresses along with the identities of their holding companies and also specifies the date of incorporation of the firm in some cases.
While stating that the ICIJ was releasing these additional details on names and addresses in "public interest", it added that the latest action was also an effort to "find out who’s behind almost 320,000 offshore companies and trusts from the Panama Papers and the offshore leaks investigations."
The group said the "new data that ICIJ is now making public represents a fraction of the Panama Papers, a trove of more than 11.5 million leaked files from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, one of the world’s top creators of hard-to-trace companies, trusts and foundations.
"ICIJ is not publishing the totality of the leak, and it is not disclosing raw documents or personal information en masse. The database contains a great deal of information about company owners, proxies and intermediaries in secrecy jurisdictions, but it doesn't disclose bank accounts, email exchanges and financial transactions contained in the documents.
"The leaked data covers nearly 40 years, from 1977 through the end of 2015," it said.
The Supreme Court also had on Monday sought response from the Centre on a plea seeking CBI inquiry against Indian offshore bank account holders named in the Panama papers.
Government has also said in the ongoing session of Parliament that the IT department has issued notices to a number of entities named in the list.
Indian investigators had said they "will be looking into" into as much fresh information that comes in this case including the latest revelations. PTI NES CPS VMN