The special court hearing Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) cases on Saturday allowed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to interrogate Pune-based businessman Hasan Ali Khan for three days between 10.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. in the ED office.
On Monday, the court will hear another application filed by the ED requesting permission for interrogating Kolkata-based businessman Kashinath Tapuriah.
Mr. Ali is presently in judicial custody at the Arthur Road jail.
Hearing on bail application on May 5
Mr. Ali filed a bail application in the court on Saturday, as instructed by the Bombay High Court on Friday. The hearing on the bail application is set to take place on May 5. The ED has been directed to file a reply on the bail application by May 4.
During the proceedings, Mr. Ali's counsel I.A. Bagaria requested the Special Judge to allow ED to keep him in their custody for the three days considering the security threat, but the ED counsel opposed it saying they would like to interrogate him only during the day, while he remained in judicial custody.
In its application, the ED said it wanted to confront Mr. Ali with the facts revealed by Congress leader from Bihar Amlendu Pandey, Puducherry Lieutenant Governor (LG) Iqbal Singh and K.C. Singh during their investigation about the Patna fake passport case.
In the application filed on April 28, the ED said it had been able to “achieve significant breakthroughs” and obtained “material information which lends substantial credence to the close involvement of the accused in Money Laundering Activities.”
Accordingly, the court issued the examination warrant allowing ED to question Mr. Ali for three days.
On Saturday, he was interrogated between 12.30 p.m. to 5.30 p.m. In the next two days, he is set to be questioned between 10.30 a.m. to 5.30 a.m.
Meanwhile, the Special Judge extended Mr. Tapuriah's judicial custody till Monday. The ED has also filed an application requesting the court's permission to interrogate Mr. Tapuriah while he is in judicial custody. The matter will come up before the court on May 2.
