Hasan Ali surrenders after SC cancels bail

Pune-based stud-farm owner Hasan Ali Khan surrendered before the Enforcement Directorate in Mumbai on Thursday night after the Supreme Court cancelled his bail in a money laundering case and remanded him to four-day ED custody.

"I respect Supreme Court's order," said Ali, while entering the premises of the ED in south Mumbai.

The Supreme Court had earlier in the day remanded Khan in the custody of ED for four days after pulling up the trial court judge who had granted bail to Khan while dismissing the agency's plea for his remand. The apex court initially remanded Khan, 53, in ED's custody for 72 hours but extended it to four days following a plea made by Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam.

A Mumbai court had on March 11 rejected ED's plea for custodial interrogation of Khan on the ground that the agency had not gathered sufficient evidence or made any case to justify its plea for Khan's custodial interrogation. Khan is also facing a Rs 70,000 crore tax demand notice from the Income Tax Department as well as the ED probe.

The ED had arrested Khan on March 7 after being pulled up by the Supreme Court for its failure to ensure his custodial interrogation. But the trial court had let him off.

The apex court cited "extraordinary circumstances" of the case in staying the order of Mumbai Principal Sessions Judge M L Tahaliyani on March 11 granting bail to Khan.

A bench of justices B Sudershan Reddy and S S Nijjar said it was "deeply disturbed" at the manner in which the trial court judge had rejected the ED's contention and granted bail while giving a lengthy order for it. "The way the proceedings were conducted, we are deeply disturbed," the bench observed, while staying the trial court's order and wondered, "Why has the learned judge written so much?"

"The order passed by the learned judge has created an extraordinary situation which may ultimately frustrate the entire investigation. Having regard to the extraordinary situation, complexity of the issue and the magnitude of the case, we deem it fit to stay the order," the bench said.

The order was passed after the ED stung by the Mumbai court's rejection of its plea for custodial interrogation moved the apex court.

Earlier, making a forceful plea on behalf of the ED, the solicitor general submitted to the court that the trial court judge had exceeded his brief and passed an unusual order for granting bail to Khan, despite neither the accused nor his counsel making any plea for it. He pointed out that the judge had granted bail to Khan, while dealing with ED's plea for his remand for his custodial interrogation.

The solicitor general claimed the ED was in possession of incriminating evidence against Khan showing that he has stashed huge black money in various banks abroad. He alleged Khan had withdrawn about 60,000 dollars from a Swiss bank and cited communications from Swiss official sources to substantiate the allegation.

Tahaliyani rejected ED's plea for custodial interrogation of Khan on the ground that the agency could not prove any "scheduled offence" against him to justify its plea in this regard. He had also slammed the ED saying some of the confidential evidence provided by it was available in Wikipedia, a free encylopedia.

Khan is also facing a Rs 70,000 crore tax demand notice from the Income-Tax Department besides the ED probe. The ED had arrested Khan on March 7 after being pulled up by the Supreme Court for its failure to ensure his custodial interrogation.