Perturbed over the Hasan Ali fiasco before a special judge in Mumbai resulting in his bail, the Supreme Court on Friday, while raising doubts over the capability of Enforcement Directorate to handle the “complex” black money case asked the Centre to think seriously about constituting a special investigating team to crack the trail of unaccounted billions stashed by rich Indians in tax heavens abroad.
Giving the government time till March 28 to make up its mind, a bench of Justices B. Sudershan Reddy and S.S. Nijjar, not willing to relent a bit on the issue, suggested that the SIT could comprise of the sleuths form CBI, ED, IT department’s investigation wing and even from some other agencies.
“You explore this composition if need arises. Start thinking about it,” Justice Reddy, heading the bench, told solicitor general Gopal Subramaniam as the court seemed to be not much impressed with his stand that the current probe by the ED was “going in right direction” with Enforcement Director Arun Mathur personally heading the probe team.
However, the bench acceded to the Centre’s request not to disclose the names of 26 Indians with “black money” accounts in LGT bank in Liechtenstein, provided by the German authorities and submitted to the court in a “sealed cover” till the government agreed to disclose them. “There will not be hearing in the open” though in principle it should have been an open hearing, the bench said.
Regarding Hasan Ali’s status, the bench made it clear that he would not be released after the completion of 4-day ED remand and be sent to judicial custody till further order by the apex court.
The clarification came after Hasan Ali’s counsel, making his first appearance in the top court ever since it started hearing a PIL on black money, wanted to know about his status once the ED remand will be over.
“Once we have stayed the order (of his bail), it will remain suspended till further order. After four days of ED custody, he has to be in judicial custody,” Justice Reddy made it plain to Ali’s counsel.
Though the special judge in Mumbai on March 11 rejected the ED plea for custodial interrogation of Ali stating that there was no “sufficient” evidence against him, the top court bench while staying the trial judge’s order on Thursday remarked “we are satisfied that the material ‘prima facie’ discloses the commission of an offence” by him punishable under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
Ali, assessed by IT department for over Rs 70,000 crore tax liability on alleged deposits of $ 8 billions in his several “black accounts” with UBS bank of Switzerland, virtually had no escape route and surrendered to ED few hours after Thursday’s top court order.
Earlier, he was arrested on March 7 by ED after the SC had severely pulled up the ED for “soft paddling” the case against him for the past four years.