ED told to disclose sum in Swiss accounts

In a major development that should help towards bringing transparency in the probe into black money stashed in Swiss banks, the Central Information Commission has directed the Enforcement Directorate to make public an estimate of the total amount of such money involved in its investigations.

Rejecting the contention of the directorate that it has been exempted from making disclosures under the RTI Act, the Commission has held all such matters now investigated by the Enforcement Directorate come within the definition of allegations of corruption, and hence should be disclosed.

"The Enforcement Directorate can let the country know as to how much is the total sum of such money they are dealing with in their current investigations. This figure can be arrived at through the simple contrivance of aggregating the sums of money in all such investigations currently underway," the Commission held in a recent order.