New Delhi: The investment of the cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, who has been named in the Pandora Papers as one of the Indians who owned business entities abroad, is legitimate and has been declared to tax authorities, his attorney said.
The Pandora Papers investigation, which was published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, revealed that Sachin Tendulkar, his wife Anjali Tendulkar and his father-in-law, Anand Mehta were beneficial owners of an offshore entity that was liquidated in 2016.
The reports suggest that the entity was purposefully liquidated three months after the Panama Papers expose in April 2016.
Mrinmoy Mukherjee, CEO and Director of Sachin Tendulkar Foundation, clearing the air over a report published in The Indian Express, said that the investment named after Sachin and his family members was accounted for and declared in tax returns, and stressed that it was legitimate.
In a statement, Mukherjee clarified that all the financial dealings he had made were through banking channels which were declared to the income tax authorities. The statement also said that whatever amount Sachin receiver following the liquidation was also declared in his tax returns.
The ICIJ obtained the trove of more than 11.9 million confidential files and led a team of more than 600 journalists from 150 news outlets that spent two years sifting through them, tracking down hard-to-find sources and digging into court records and other public documents from dozens of countries.
Hundreds of wealthy Indians, including business people, figure in the 'Pandora Papers' that has uncovered the financial assets of rich individuals across the world. Many of the Indians have rejected allegations of misdoings.
More than 300 Indian names are part of the list. Anil Ambani, Vinod Adani, Jackie Shroff, Niira Radia and Satish Sharma, among others, figure in the list of Indians in the 'Pandora Papers' revealed so far.