ED Summons Aishwarya Rai Bachchan In 2016 Panama Paper Leak Case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED,) on the 20th of December, Monday, summoned Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.

She was issued a notice in the 2016 Panama Papers leak case. The ED has alleged involvement of Ms. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Mr. Amitabh Bachchan and 500 other prominent people including celebrities and politicians. In 2016, a set of 11.5 million documents of the Panama company were leaked exposing money laundering worth crores.

The Panama Papers are a leaked set of 11.5 million confidential documents, which provide detailed information about more than 2,14,000 offshore companies listed by the Panamanian corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca, including the identities of shareholders and directors of the companies. It was one of the biggest leak and money laundering matters in 2016, which is still under investigation.

On Monday, the ED is going to interrogate Aishwarya Rai and question the remittances of Ms. Bachchan in the Reserve Bank of India (RBI's) Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) along with other irregularities. The ED said, "We summoned her for December 20. As of now we haven't got any reply from her side. The summon was sent to her Mumbai residence."

However, Ms. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is likely to skip the summons of the ED, for the third time. If she fails to appear today, the ED is likely to take further legal action against the actress.