Pune-based real estate developer Hasan Ali Khan, who was arrested on late Monday night by the Enforcement Directorate, was remanded by the sessions court to ED’s custody on Tuesday. Khan was kept at JJ Hospital for most part of the day, as he complained of high blood pressure.
Khan’s lawyers requested the court to allow him to stay at the hospital overnight, however the court ruled that he should be kept in ED’s custody for a day. The defence lawyer filed an application before the court requesting retraction of Khan’s confessional statement made before the ED investigators on Monday in Pune.
Khan was detained by the ED in Pune on Monday evening for questioning in various money laundering cases. ED sources said the interrogation continued for over three hours after which officials decided to bring him to Mumbai.
Late night on Monday, Khan was arrested under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). After a medical check-up at a government hospital in south Mumbai, this Pune-based real estate dealer and horse trader spent the night in ED’s custody in Mumbai.
In the morning, Khan complained of high blood pressure and was taken to the government-run JJ hospital for check up and treatment. The doctors at JJ hospital were convinced that he could be discharged, so by late afternoon he was produced in the principal sessions court before Judge ML Tahaliyani who raised the issue of jurisdiction, saying Hasan Ali Khan should have been presented before the metropolitan court and not the sessions court.
Public prosecutor Adv Pande pleaded that under the PMLA, a special court was empowered to run the proceedings. Defence counsel IP Bagadia also agreed on this issue, but the principal sessions judge adjourned the hearing till Wednesday after handing over Khan’s remand to the ED. He will take a view on the issue of jurisdiction to hear the case on Wednesday. Meanwhile, defence counsel’s plea to allow Khan to spend the night at hospital was turned down by the judge. Khan is accused of stashing huge sums of unaccounted money in various banks abroad.
He is accused of depositing $8 in UBS, Switzerland. ED sources claimed that Khan was arrested late night on Monday after prolonged searches at his Pune and Mumbai residences yielded some proof to suggest that these allegations could be substantiated in the court of law. The next hearing on this case is on Wednesday.
