Is Hasan Ali really worth Rs 36,000 cr?

Alleged Tax evader got bail yesterday as Enforcement Directorate failed to produce clinching evidence. Court feels his Swiss Bank account documents 'may have been created for some other purpose'

Is Hasan Ali really worth Rs 36,000 cr?

Alleged Tax evader got bail yesterday as Enforcement Directorate failed to produce clinching evidence. Court feels his Swiss Bank account documents 'may have been created for some other purpose'

The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) after failing to produce documents to convince the court of alleged tax evasion by Hasan Ali Khan has now given rise to the contention that the documents it had been relying on to prove the crime "may have been created for some other purpose".

A senior ED official confessed he had suspected that Khan could not be worth more than Rs 20 crore.
He arrived at the figure after assessing Khan's assets: a bungalow, two apartments, a Mercedes and about 12 race horses.

"The value of all these put together cannot be more than Rs 20 crore. It is not surprising that the Income Tax department could not prove that he is a defaulter," he said.

This, when ED officials were known to believe all along that Hasan Ali was worth Rs 36,000 crore.
The matter assumes significance in light of the fact that ED could not present a watertight case before Judge ML Tahiliyani resulting in Khan's bail yesterday afternoon.

Unsolved riddle

The ED investigators could not make any sense of the documents that showed Khan's bloated Swiss bank accounts, legal experts alleged, because they could have been forged just to impress investors in the country.
This, they say, could be the reason the ED could not put the jigsaw in place.

As the court observed yesterday, the investigators had not verified if the documents pertaining to his alleged black money of $8 billion were genuine.

"It is possible that the documents may have been created for some other purpose," the court said.

Insiders also informed MiD DAY that speculation is rife that he shammed the accounts to lure investors. Khan has a few fraud cases pending against him in Hyderabad, documents of which are with MiD DAY.u00a0

The ED's task has been made more difficult as it could not crosscheck the accounts with Swiss banks, which denied its requests for verification.

The fraud, if any, would have been detected much earlier if the bank transactions were in India, experts said.

According to a senior ED official, the investigating team initiated a letter of request (LoR) to the US, UK, Singapore, Hong Kong and UAE on July 13, 2009 by a session court to cooperate in the overseas inquiry. A reply to the LoRs is pending.

"If the accounts are not real, how can the ED investigating team put the puzzle in place," said a crime branch officer.

"The result is going to be shoddy as it happened in the court," he added.

Meanwhile

Kolkata-based businessman Kashinath Tapuria, alleged aide of Khan, told officials that he came in contact with Khan in 1993 when one of his companies Incab Industries Ltd became sick. The broker Khan assured him that he had sufficient funds.

He even showed Tapuria two original receipts of deposits made in Swiss banks.

There were other receipts ofu00a0 $1.50 million, $700 million, $300 million, and $560 million (copies with MiD DAY) to convince him of his strong financial standing.

However, insiders said that Tapuria realised he was being taken for a ride by Khan, and all the transactions fell through.