Taking note of the magnitude of the black money issue, the Supreme Court on Friday asked the Union government to consider the setting up a special investigation team (SIT) to probe various aspects of the matter.
A Bench of Justices B. Sudershan Reddy and S.S. Nijjar, hearing a petition filed by the former Union Law Minister, Ram Jethmalani, relating to the Centre's inaction in retrieving black money stashed away abroad, asked Solicitor-General (SG) Gopal Subramaniam to explain the Centre's stand in this regard on the next date of hearing, which would be March 28.
Earlier, the Bench, which on Thursday cancelled the bail granted to Pune-based Hasan Ali Khan, clarified that on the completion of the four-day custodial interrogation, Hasan Ali would be remanded in judicial custody.
The Bench gave the clarification when senior counsel Uday Lalit, appearing for Ali, wanted know what Ali's position would be after the four-day police custody. Justice Reddy told Mr. Lalit that since the trial court's order granting bail was stayed, Ali would have to be remanded in judicial custody after four days of custodial interrogation.
When Mr. Subramaniam sought time to file a response to the petitioner's submissions, Justice Reddy said, “We are not talking about one case but [the] many cases [which] are involved in it. This is much wider. We want to get to the bottom of the matter. Do you have any objection if an SIT is constituted? You see the magnitude of the matter; the Enforcement Directorate would not be able to handle it alone. An SIT can be constituted with members from the CBI, the Income-Tax (I-T) Department and the Enforcement Directorate (ED). You consult Mr. Anil Divan [senior counsel] for the petitioner and come up with its possible composition. You need not tell the names in the court.” The SG said the ED was conducting a thorough probe and the constitution of an SIT might not be necessary at this stage.
