New Delhi, July 20: Government was on Monday accused of concealing to the Supreme Court information relating to stashing of black money in foreign banks by a businessman against whom Enforcement Directorate has lodged a complaint for allegedly violating tough Foreign Exchange Management Act.
The apex court took note of the allegation and sought a response from the Centre to the complaint lodged against Pune-based businessman Hasan Ali Khan for accumulating wealth to the tune of over eight billion US dollars in foreign banks.
“We want information from the ED. All information must be given,” a Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice P Sathasivam said without issuing any notice as Solicitor General Gopal Subaramanium said he will respond to the comments made by senior advocate Ram Jethamalani and others who had filed the PIL on the issue of black money before the general elections.
“I will seek instructions from the ED on the complaint lodged by it against Khan and respond,” said the Solicitor General who successfully resisted the issuance of notice by the Bench which granted him two weeks to file a response to the written submission made by the petitioners and posted the matter for hearing after three weeks.
Subramanium said government will respond to the written submission and subsequent developments that have taken place after the May four hearing.
“All effective steps have been taken,” Subramanium said adding the issue of ED complaint has come to him for the first time.
The Solicitor General was responding to the allegation by senior advocate Anil Divan that the government did not inform about the complaint lodged by ED in December 2008 against Hasan when it had filed the affidavit on May 2.
“Why did the government shy away with the content of ED complaint against Khan?” he said elaborating on the enormity of the issue.
Divan, appearing for Jethmalani, said the complaint filed on December 22, 2008, by an Assistant Director of ED against Khan, showed that on December 8, 2006, Khan had an amount of over USD 8 billion in his account with UBS AG, Zurich.
This amount, he said, was equivalent to Rs 36,000 crore.
Divan submitted vigorous investigations could have been undertaken into this aspect and action should have been taken against Khan on money laundering charges for custodial interrogation.
In the complaint, ED had also made a reference to Khan’s account and money deposited in UBS Singapore.
Divan, who placed the comments on Khan’s case before the Bench, said he will file an additional affidavit as ED’s investigations reveal how the bank balance swelled astronomically in a few years.
The Assistant Director also recorded that Khan was earlier trading in iron and steel scrap and that at present he is in the business of horse-racing, Divan said adding that according to Khan’s own submission, his annual income is Rs 30 lakhs.
He said when government had filed the affidavit in May it had mentioned about Khan but did not make reference of the complaint lodged by ED against him.
–IANS–