Mumbai,August 13 :THERE were big names involved.But the Enforcement Directorate ( ED) seems to have managed to dilute the Hasan Ali case, making him get away almost scot- free.
On Friday, the Pune stud farm owner was released on bail by the Bombay High Court against a surety of ` 5 lakh after it found no case of “ money laundering” against Ali.
The court lashed out at the ED for having failed to establish the case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, on which the chargesheet stands.
The Supreme Court has been monitoring Ali’s case for the past four months after it first cancelled his bail, allowed by the trial court, on March 17. Since then, Ali has been remanded in the custody of probe agencies, as well as in judicial custody.
The ED, in over a month’s interrogation that continued well into May, had gathered the details of Ali’s money laundering activities through the routes of Singapore, Mauritius and Switzerland, and through his own statements and those of his aide, Kashinath Tapuriah.
In his statement to the ED as early as March 19 and 20, right after his arrest, Ali had revealed the names of top politicians, including three former Maharashtra CMs and two former Andhra Pradesh CMs, along with the names of actors- turnedpoliticians as part of his racket.
But when the Supreme Court ordered that Ali’s statements be re- recorded on video, he was uncooperative. The ED too, which was already under enormous pressure, did not dig deep enough.
So in its chargesheet filed before the special court on May 6, the ED brought back the same old charges against Ali. It gave the details of his fake passport and accounts — which were already known for two years.
The chargesheet failed to explain the flow of money into Ali’s accounts — a point Justice Abhay Thipsay of the Bombay High Court noted on Friday. He said just because Ali had foreign bank accounts it couldn’t be inferred that he was laundering money. The court asked Ali to deposit his passport and not leave Mumbai or Pune without the ED probe officer’s written permission. ED officials admitted the case was weakening.