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CBI to ask Swiss officials for details on Ketan's secret account

Sheela Bhatt in New Delhi

A letter rogatory (letter of request) is likely to be issued within a fortnight to Swiss authorities by the Central Bureau of Investigation to obtain the details of the account allegedly held by stockbroker Ketan Parekh, prime accused in the multi-million-rupee pay order scam.

Last month, the bank securities and fraud cell of the Central Bureau of Investigation had said that Ketan Parekh is the beneficiary of the secret account in a Swiss bank.

Parekh, however, has filed an affidavit contending that he does not have any account in any Swiss bank and refuted CBI allegations that millions of Swiss francs were deposited therein.

According to CBI sources, the letter rogatory is ready and it will be sent to Swiss government to get more details from Money Laundering Control Office.

(The MLCO is a the monitoring authority for slush money movement in Swiss banks. Any government in the world with specific information can inquire with this office and find the trail of slush funds smuggled out of its country.)

In 1999, Switzerland enacted a law under which all Swiss banks are expected to report secret accounts in which abnormally large or 'suspicious' amounts are deposited.

"This office is very co-operative. When we were tipped-off about Ketan Parekh's account in Credit Suisse at Zurich, we contacted the MLCO officials. We got the confirmation that recently a large amount has been registered in a secret account, whose beneficiary is Ketan Parekh," said CBI spokesman Shehzad Mohammad Khan.

Incidentally, this is the first time CBI has forwarded an inquiry to this office.

Last week A K Gupta, CBI DIG (Interpol), visited Geneva to conduct further inquiries into 'the Parekh account'. The letter rogatory is being prepared as a follow-up to the visit.

According to CBI sources, a Nassau-based corporation transferred a large amount to a secret Swiss bank account. Ketan Parekh, it is alleged, is the sole beneficiary of this account.

"We will now investigate the amount of funds in the secret account and whether they are the proceeds of some wrongdoing," said Khan.

"The investigating agency is pursuing the matter seriously." informed acting CBI chief Prem Chand Sharma while talking to rediff.com.

"Since Parekh is under arrest and is being interrogated in regard to the Madhavpura bank case, we would not like to divulge more information," he said.

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