Special Investigation Team sets up roadmap to retrieve black money

NEW DELHI: The special investigation team set up to probe black money stashed by Indians abroad held its first meeting on Monday during which the roadmap on how to proceed was decided and all agencies were asked to give inputs on black money cases.

Sources privy to the meeting said the SIT headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice MB Shah decided to examine whether some of the black money cases could be put on fast track. After nearly two hours of deliberations, the finance ministry came out with a brief statement saying that "during the meeting, detailed modalities of proceeding further with the Supreme Court mandate were discussed and the roadmap decided".

Without elaborating on the roadmap, the statement said the next meeting of the SIT would be convened shortly to take stock of follow-up action on the decisions taken at Monday' talks.

However, sources said agencies like Enforcement Directorate, CBI and other financial probe agencies were asked to submit the number of black money and money-laundering cases pending before them and the progress of the probe.

The meeting was chaired by Justice Shah and attended by former Supreme Court judge Justice Arijit Pasayat as vice-chairman and top officials of 11 high-profile agencies and departments including Intelligence Bureau, Research and Analysis Wing, CBI and ED.

According to sources, framing of policy for tackling the menace of black money and the status of ongoing probes and available inputs with all the departments in this regard were discussed.