Hasan Ali’s bail cancelled by SC
The Enforcement Directorate, apparently fearing a stern reprimand from the Supreme Court on the Hasan Ali Khan case fiasco in a Mumbai court resulting in his bail, rushed directly to the apex court for overturning the bail order before Friday’s all important hearing on the black money issue.
The hectic move of the ED proved fruitful as a bench of Justices B. Sudershan Reddy and S.S. Nijjar not only cancelled the bail of Khan but allowed the investigators his immediate custody for four days grilling, while the special judge of Mumbai also came in for sharp criticism, saying this was an “extraordinary and complex case” requiring special handling.
While allowing the ED plea, the bench said the trial court’s order would “frustrate” the entire investigation while the situation arising out of the black money probe was an “extraordinary situation involving various complexities.”
“In view of the magnitude of the case, we consider it appropriate that Hasan Ali should be subjected to custodial interrogation. He is accordingly remanded to the custody of the ED for four days,” the bench said.
The top court at the same time disapproved the attitude of the trial judge M.L. Tahilyani treating the matter as an ordinary case, considering the fact that it involved serious offences of money laundering and evasion of huge taxes by Khan, who allegedly had deposited whopping $ 8 billion in UBS bank in Switzerland and his total tax liabilities were assessed to be over Rs 70,000 crore.
“The way the proceedings were conducted, we are deeply disturbed. We cannot say anything more than this,” Justice Reddy, heading the bench, observed.
The top court made the remarks after Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium, also conducing the proceedings on the black money issue, submitted that the trial judge M.L. Tahilyani granted bail on March 12 to Khan despite the fact that he had not even moved any application for bail.
Effectively rejecting the ruling of the trial judge that ED had failed to collect concrete evidence against Khan, the SC bench said, “we are satisfied that the material prima facie discloses the commission of offence” by Khan, which was punishable under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
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