The Supreme Court on Friday set aside a Bombay High Court order of August 12 that granted bail to Hasan Ali Khan, detained under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and other laws.
On August 16, A Bench of Justices Altamas Kabir and S.S. Nijjar, acting on an appeal from the Union of India, suspended the operation of the order. Consequently, Hasan Ali was not released on bail. Allowing the appeal, the Bench said the High Court order should be interfered with and cancelled his bail.
The Bench agreed with the Centre's submissions that Hasan Ali had huge funds in his accounts to the extent of $ 800 million with a bank outside India and various transactions through his foreign bank accounts revealed his association with international arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi.
The Court agreed that the facts and documents revealed a chronological depiction of money laundering activities of Hasan Ali and maintenance of foreign accounts and huge foreign exchange transactions.
The Bench did not agree with the contention on behalf of Hasan Ali that most of the transactions, “which are the subject matter of the case, have taken place before coming into force of the PML Act. They could not be the subject matter of prosecution for the offence punishable under the PML Act.”
