Stud farm owner Hasan Ali Khan has been booked by the CBI and the ED for corruption and money laundering allegations respectively in separate cases, six years after he came under scanner for purported tax evasion.
CBI sources said the agency has registered a case against Khan and unknown officials for alleged criminal conspiracy and corruption. The action has been taken on the basis of a complaint received from tax authorities, they said. The sources refused to give any further details as it may affect their probe.
The Enforcement Directorate has registered a fresh case of money laundering against Khan, six years after he was booked in a case by it for generation of black money.
Officers said the agency has filed a fresh FIR, called the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) in ED parlance, recently and has named Khan and certain government officials and politicians in it.
The fresh FIR against Khan, allegedly one of the biggest tax evaders in the country, is significant as sources said some fresh evidence has been found by investigators, which includes sensitive information received from foreign shores.
The new complaint comes after about six years; he was first booked by the ED in 2011 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and had been arrested. Officers indicated that while the first complaint did not name any government official or politician associated with Khan, 62, the ED’s probe has now thrown some light on these contacts. The role of certain I-T department officials who probed this case is also under the scanner of the agency, they said.
It is expected that the agency could initiatge fresh searches and questioning in this case, which has been talked about as one of the most important black money cases in the country. The Khan case is the only one listed by name in the terms of reference of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on black money, constituted by the government in 2014 on the directions of the Supreme Court.
The agencyhad raided the residences of Khan and his relatives in Pune and Mumbai in February last year and had seized ₹26.30 lakh in cash, computer hardware and hard drives. He was also questioned by a top level team of ED and CBI offices last year after the raids. Khan was released on bail in August 2015 after several years in ED custody.
He came under scrutiny by multiple agencies including the Economic Offences Wing of the Mumbai police in 2007, which had been probing him and his associates for money laundering, income tax evasion and violations of the Passport Act. He was issued a notice by the I-T department demanding taxes amounting to over ₹50,000 crore. The case was said to be the biggest individual case of black money stashed abroad and also was the biggest tax evasion by an Indian.
However, an order by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) last year had pegged his tax liability at about ₹75 crore. The ED had also attached a few immovable assets under PMLA as part of its probe against Khan, his wife Rheema and others.
