Odishatv Bureau
New Delhi: Pulling up the government for the "laggardly pace" in investigations into the issue of black money stashed abroad, the Supreme Court on Monday appointed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by former apex court judge B P Jeevan Reddy to investigate and monitor steps taken to bring the unaccounted money back home.

Another former apex court judge M B Shah will be Vice Chairman of the 13-member SIT into which Director of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) has been inducted.

A bench comprising Justices B Sudershan Reddy and S S Nijjar, which is seized of the issue raised in a PIL by noted jurist Ram Jethmalani and others, pronounced the order saying monies generated and secreted away reveal the degree of "softness of the State".

The court rejected the demand for disclosing the names of individuals which had figured in the list given by German government but ordered giving out the names of those against whom show-cause notices have already been issued and prosecution has taken place.

It criticised the government over the handling of black money cases saying that despite issues of large sums of unaccounted monies, allegedly held by certain named individuals, and loose associations of them, "the investigations into the matter proceeded at a laggardly pace".

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