The bail application of Hasan Ali Khan, the Pune-based businessman arrested for money laundering, was rejected by the special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) judge on Thursday.
Khan was arrested in March last year. Several bail applications filed by his lawyers in the sessions court and the Bombay high court have been rejected. Khan had also moved a review petition before the Supreme Court (SC) demanding reconsideration of the order cancelling his bail. The petition was rejected in January.
Following the SC order, Khan had moved a fresh bail application before the sessions court, citing change of circumstances. Khan contended that he has been booked under the Passport Act in Patna and Mumbai, while a case has been registered against him in Hyderabad for facilitating the sale of Nizam diamonds. His application states that the information received by him through an RTI query on February 7 reveals that the police have, so far, received no evidence against him in the Hyderabad case, while the other two cases were registered under the Passport
Act, when the PMLA was not in place.
In its reply, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) alleged that Khan and Kashinath Tapuriah, Kolkata-based businessman and co-accused in the case, had laundered billions of dollars in foreign banks including over $8 billion in the Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) in Zurich.
Khan’s counsel Amit Desai argued that the agency had suppressed certain valuable documents which could prove that the charges against Khan were baseless from the court.
Refuting the allegations, ED’s counsel Ujjwal Nikam said that the agency has overwhelming evidence against him in the case under the PMLA. Nikam said that there was a possibility that Khan may go absconding, if granted bail.