Book recalls mystery Swiss bank account of Sikh princess

Tribune News Service

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, October 18

Among trillions of US dollars of Indian money lying stashed abroad, a part belongs to erstwhile Indian royals or their heirs, one prominent account holder being the second daughter of Maharaja Duleep Singh, who was the fifth and the last ruler of the Sikh kingdom founded by his father Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab in 1799.

A new book, “The Reverse Swing: Colonialism to Cooperation”, by Ashok Tandon, former Media Adviser to late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, has recalled the mystery of this bank account, which continues to exist even today in the name of Princess Catherine Hilda Duleep Singh.

Calling upon the Indian Government to unlock the mystery of the deposit, the book records that the “joint account in the name of Catherine Hilda Duleep Singh and a safe deposit at the UBS AG Bank in Swiss capital Bern — last operated way back in the 1930s.”

The author, while citing the recovery of £35 million (Rs 325 crore) by India which won the famous “Hyderabad Fund Case” in a British court after 75 years of battle, says the government must “operate the dormant account of the Sikh princess” as part of its pursuit of unaccounted Indian wealth abroad, which, as per one estimate, amounts to $2 trillion.

The book, an analysis of the Indo-UK ties over the past seven decades, was launched here today by Union Minister Hardeep Puri. It deals at length with the unaccounted Indian money in offshore accounts and recalls that during the British rule in India, many Indian royals would visit Britain and Europe, take precious assets to auction houses, spend money in luxury hotels, and bring expensive sanitary ware, cutlery, gold plated taps, and other valuables back to their palaces.

Catherine Hilda’s Swiss account was first revealed in July 1997 when Swiss banks published names of holders of dormant accounts to restore properties of Holocaust victims to their descendants.

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