The Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed an additional affidavit in the Bombay High Court on Tuesday stating that Pune-based businessman Hasan Ali Khan, who is accused of massive money laundering, does not have any legal or known source of income to fund his properties worth Rs. 16.5 crore. It said that the transactions done for purchasing the properties were done with an intention to hide the true source of money.
His movable and immovable assets, include one Porsche Cayenne, three Mercedes Benz, three floors of 1, Tulip, Valentine co-operative society, Koregaon Park, Pune, and flat no. 39C, fourth floor, Anand Darshan co-operative housing society, Peddar Road in Mumbai. The ED stated in the affidavit that some of the deals which were carried out through cheque were done to camouflage cash transactions.
The investigated properties belong to both Mr. Khan and his wife, Rheema Khan. Most of the assessed properties were found to have been in the name of Ms. Khan, including the two immovable properties.
According to the ED, Ms. Khan also owns a Mercedes Benz car, an Opel Corsa Sail 1.6 and a Hyundai Sonata car.
The value of Porsche is more than Rs. 60 lakh, whereas the value of each of the three Mercedes Benz cars is Rs. 25 lakh upwards. The immovable property in Pune is valued at Rs. 8.64 crore and the one in Mumbai costs around Rs. 6 crore, the ED said.
The ED said the transactions carried out for buying various properties were dubious in nature.
It said the Pune property was shown to have been bought by taking a loan of Rs. 1 crore from 38 different persons by the way of small value cheques. “Investigations revealed that these cheques were issued in lieu of cash given by Hasan Ali Khan/Rheema Hasan Ali Khan and is for the purpose of not disclosing the true nature of transactions,” the affidavit stated.
According to the affidavit, a finance company M/s Dhanshri Fin Caps Ltd arranged for the loan of Rs. 1.40 crore for the Mumbai property. “The said loan was found to have been arranged through the said finance company on payment of Rs. 1.40 crore in cash by the Khans so as to camouflage the cash transactions.”“The movable properties…were purchased in the name of Mr. Khan or Ms. Khan through cash transactions and without known legal source of income,” it said.
“In view of the above investigations, these properties, totally valued at Rs. 16.5 crore approximately, have been provisionally attached under Section 5 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act [PMLA], 2002,” the ED said. The provisional attachment order was issued on June 30, 2011.
Assistant Director of ED I.D. Shanmugham filed the additional affidavit in response to the bail application filed by Mr. Khan in the court. The lower court had rejected his bail plea, following which he approached the High Court.
Mr. Khan's counsel I.A. Bagaria told the court on Tuesday that he did not have any money in foreign bank accounts. He said the offences registered against him were old and should have been dealt with according to previous legislations like the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).
