Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh’s Son Abhishek Singh Named in Panama Papers, Claims Congress

Abhishek Singh is a BJP Lok Sabha MP from the state's Rajnandgaon constituency.

New Delhi, Jul 8: The Chhattisgarh unit of the Congress on Sunday claimed that it has proof that Abhishak Singh, the name revealed by International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in the Panama Papers, referred to Chief Minister Raman Singh‘s son Abhishek Singh. Abhishek was the director of a company and used to spell his name as Abhishak, claims the grand-old party. “He had resigned from the company before contesting Lok Sabha elections in 2014,” state Congress chief Bhupesh Baghel told reporters at a press conference in Raipur.

Abhishek Singh is a BJP Lok Sabha MP from the state’s Rajnandgaon constituency. Baghel said that Abhishak Singh’s residential address mentioned in his foreign bank account was “Raman Medical Store, New Bus Stand, Ward Number 20, Vindhyawasini Ward, Kawardha”. Abhishek used to spell his name as Abhishak and later changed the spelling of his name to the current one.

Refuting the charges, Abhishek Singh termed Baghel’s allegations baseless. “The Congress was not getting any issues and therefore it was encouraging politics of lies,” a statement issued by Abhishek Singh’s office said.

The statement further said, “I have the name Abhishek Singh right from the start and I have never changed it. During studies, it was mistakenly written as Abhishak instead of Abhishek which was corrected by a public notice and this is in the public domain.”

What are Panama Papers?

Panama Papers are known as a cache of 11.5 million records which were appropriated by International Consortium of Investigative Journalists secretly by a person related to Panama based Law Firm Mossack Fonseca. The website of the ICIJ stated the leak of 11.5 million documents exposed the offshore holdings of 12 current and former world leaders and reveals how associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin secretly shuffled as much as $2 billion through banks and shadow companies.

The leaked data covers nearly 40 years, from 1977 through the end of 2015. It allows a never-before-seen view inside the offshore world — providing a day-to-day, decade-by-decade look at how dark money flows through the global financial system, breeding crime and stripping national treasuries of tax revenues.

The website further claims the documents made it clear that major banks are big drivers behind the creation of hard-to-trace companies in the British Virgin Islands, Panama and other offshore havens. The files list nearly 15,600 paper companies that banks set up for clients who want to keep their finances under wraps, including thousands created by international giants UBS and HSBC.