By: Ravi Sinha
It seems to be a box-office-hit bollywood potboiler where a billioner realtor is interrogated as many as 29 times over a period of four years, gets arrested on charges of money laundering. But in the end manages the investigation and a weak case is what makes him laugh away at the system. However, it happened in the real life when the alleged money launderer Hasan Ali Khan was granted bail on Friday after the shoddy investigation by Enforcement Directorate (ED) failed to produce a single document by which he could be prosecuted.
Special judge ML Tahliyani granted Khan bail on a cash bond of Rs.75,000 and two sureties of Rs.40,000 each. The judge at the same time reprimanded the ED for sloppy investigation and a weak case. In the last four years Hasan Ali was interrogated as many as 29 times by the ED, despite which the agency was not able to secure a simple remand of him.
It obviously raises the question mark over the intent by the Enforcement Directorate more than anything else. The legal experts are also surprised as to how such a weak case was made out of one of the most high profile cases in recent times. It was a huge blow to the investigation by the ED who were left with red face when Justice ML Tahilyani not only rejected ED’s demand for further custody of Hasan Ali, but also gave him bail.
In the final order the special judge laid bare all the loopholes which cost the ED the custody of its most high profile accused. These observations were like a slap on ED’s face. While rejecting the ED application for Hasan Ali’s custody the judge observed: “The documents submitted by the ED are contradictory and don’t necessarily mean that Hasan Ali held the accounts he is alleged to have. There is no material to show that any scheduled offence was committed under sections of prevention of the Money Laundering Act 2002. ED has also not been able to prove what the offence committed was and why it was committed. The transactions related to UBS Bank and Sarasin Bank do not prove to be proceeds of any crime.”
The court also noted the investigators had not verified if the documents pertaining to his alleged black money of $8 billion were genuine. All this is enough to raise suspicion over the intent of the investigators who relied more on the documents which were seized during the raids conducted by the Income Tax Department in 2007.
Photocopies of various documents received from the Income tax Department and ED’s personal sources had been placed before the court, originals of which the agency failed to provide. Some documents submitted by the ED marked as confidential contained information freely available on the Internet and Wikipedia.
The ED has also not been able to make out if any scheduled offence was committed within the country and that the proceeds of any crime have been taken out of the country. The defence pointed out that accounts under scrutiny are in the name of HA Khan which is not the way his name is spelt on his passport.
With Hasan Ali’s custody slipping out of its hands, the ED appears to be on a weak wicket. The worst moment for the ED was when the court remarked the documents submitted by the agency were available even on the internet.
“It has been noticed by me that the documents are available on internet, particularly on Wikipedia, so they cannot be considered confidential,” the court remarked.
It is really surprising as to how the ED was relying on the 168 pages it submitted to the court, even stating that they were confidential and their content should not be disclosed in the open court.
Facing pressure from all quarters the ED will have to get its act together before the next Supreme Court hearing. “Actually a higher court will consider the matter under the law that we have. We are studying the court’s order and what action is required under the law,” said ED’s lawyer Rajeev Awasthi.
Legal experts who handle PMLA cases, however, believe the damage has been one and with the strong observations made by the court, any chances of success at the trail have been practically demolished.
