Crime, corruption, wrongdoing, secret offshore companies of the who’s who tucked away in tax havens around the world—all these elements make way for a mind-boggling investigative journey. But wait, there is more. When such expose comes in the form of the largest collaborative investigations by journalists across the globe, it becomes history.
The Panama Papers, authored by award-winning journalists Ritu Sarin, Jay Mazoomdaar and P. Vaidyanathan Iyer of The Indian Express, documents this history as they give an unrelenting, gripping account of the unprecedented giant leaks and the probe that was carried out by the three member Indian team which collaborated with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The Panama Papers shook the world, woke up governments and showed what investigative journalism could achieve.
The India story of this mega investigation has been penned down by the trio in the book, The Panama Papers, to tell the backstory of hot leads and cold trails, of open denial and veiled intimidation. The journalists take you to their newsrooms, grip you in their excitement, anxiety and run you through nine months of painstaking investigation whose outcome is nothing less than an explosion.
The final line-up of The Panama Papers' Day one package had two stories on former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his predecessor Benazir Bhutto. Along these were slotted reports on the involvement of the Russian president, Iceland president and footballer Lionel Messi.
The book tells us how Ritu Sarin, Executive Editor (investigations ) with the Indian Express, cautioned against a potential overkill. But the chief editor would rather err on that side and was not in the mood for any half measures. At the evening editorial meeting that day, the consensus was that there was enough ammunition to run the campaign over five days and no rationing or firepower was required on day one .
Rest is history as they say. Ritu Sarin, one of India’s finest investigative reporters and a member of ICIJ, not only led her team to uncover how offshore puppets are run, round tripping is done and share secrecy is maintained. The Panama Papers gave the Narendra Modi government an opportunity to fulfil the big promises they had made about recovering black money during the 2014 election campaign. The government announced setting up of a Special Investigation Team to implement the decision of the Supreme Court on large amounts of money stashed abroad by evading taxes or generated through unlawful activities.
The Prime Minister wanted the Panama Papers to be scrutinised by an exclusive probe team. Vaidyanathan, who had pieced together how the Panama papers had impacted India’s highest seat of power—the Prime Minister's Office located in South Block—was requested by a top PMO official for a meeting. The expose had just hit the stands. More was to follow but Ritu and her team were ready.
Book: The Panama Papers: The untold India story of trailblazing global offshore investigation
Authors: Ritu Sarin, Jay Mazoomdaar and P. Vaidyanathan Iyer
Published by Penguin Random House India
Price: Rs 599
