Rs 700 Crore Mystery

The rumour mill has it that this is the son of a very senior Congress politician hailing from Andhra Pradesh, and the amount declared is the sum of all the unaccounted-for moolah the politician and his sons have together acquired over several decades. While most other big declarants waited till the last moment to come clean, the Congress leader and his family decided to go for it early in August. Among the assets declared were huge amounts of hard cash, dozens of bank accounts both in India and abroad, numerous real estate properties and jewellery. A tax of around Rs 200 crore was paid, and all the money thereupon turned white. As a result of the declaration, for some time, Hyderabad headed the list of all cities in terms of VDIS collections.

One interesting aspect of this case is that some of the scams with which the politician and his son's name have been linked are still being investigated. If the authorities chargesheet them, they would obviously plead not guilty, while they have actually, in a way confessed to the government through their whopping declarations. But, significantly, those declarations will not be open to scrutiny by the prosecutors. Which makes for a very interesting state of affairs.