Passport fraud: Police file chargesheet against Hasan Ali

Pune police have filed a chargesheet against Hasan Ali Khan, accused of multi-crore money laundering and tax evasion in the case of "falsification of information" for renewal of his passport in 2004.

Khan (54), who is currently lodged at Mumbai's Arthur Road jail, was booked by Chatushrungi police in a case registered in December 2011 by the Pune Passport Office.

In March this year, Chatushrungi police had got a day's custody of Khan and had also taken a sample of his handwriting. Last week, police readied a 40-page chargesheet and submitted it to the magistrate's court in Pune.

Inspector (crime) Subhash Nikam, who is investigating the case said, "He has been chargesheeted under the same sections that were in the FIR. No additional sections have been applied. The case will now be taken up for hearing."

Police said the chargesheet contains documented evidence and statements of witnesses, including the officers of the passport office. Sources said Khan will soon be produced in court for hearing again.

In the FIR, Khan was booked under Sections 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 10(3) and 12(1) of Indian Passport Act.

As per the complaint, Khan got a passport issued from the Indian High Commission in London in 2004, in which the address he had furnished was of a Banjara Hills residence in Panjigutta area in Hyderabad. At the time of mentioning the address, the property in question was owned by his first wife Mehboob Unnisa Begum, whom he had divorced in 1999, and had hence no connection to that address.

Nikam said, "All these came to light after his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate and a case was registered. The passport office had registered a case of willfully furnishing wrong information against him. We have evidence corroborating the charges as well as samples of his handwriting."

The chargesheet states that Khan had the passport (number A9884318) since 2000, which he was issued from the Hyderabad passport office. Hasan Ali went to London on this passport. In London he got another passport issued from the Indian High Commission, on grounds that "he had lost his earlier one". In early 2004, a fresh passport was issued to him.

On November 7, 2004, Khan made an application for its renewal at the Pune passport office and got it issued on December 24 the same year. Here, Khan withheld information about his other passports that he got issued from Chandigarh, Guwahati and Patna, police said.

Cases have also been registered at these place against Khan under the passport act. The case in Pune is soon expected to be taken up for the hearing.
Courtesy:
SushantKulkarni : Tue Jun 11 2013, 02:32 hrs
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/passport-fraud-police-file-chargesheet-against-hasan-ali/1127471/0

Chargesheet filed against Hasan Ali in fake passport case

Patna Police have filed a chargesheet against Pune-based businessman Hasan Ali, who is facing money laundering charges, in a fake passport case. Ali had been recently brought from Maumbai to Patna in connection with the case. In March, the police had also got a signature sample of Ali and sent it for forensic examination. Patna City SP Jayant Kant said: "We filed the charge-sheet against Ali yesterday. We have adequate corroborative evidence against Ali, who had submitted fake documents in Patna regional passport office to get a passport as Sitamarhi resident." The passport office had issued him a passport through a conduit in April 1997 without seeking police verification report.
Courtesy:
Express news service : Patna, Wed Apr 03 2013, 01:24 hrs
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/chargesheet-filed-against-hasan-ali-in-fake-passport-case/1096860/#sthash.sP6X7c8u.dpuf

HC dismisses Hasan Ali Khan wife’s plea of Attachment of property

The Bombay High Court on Thursday dismissed an application filed by Rheema Khan, wife of Pune stud farm owner Hasan Ali Khan, challenging an order passed by the appellate tribunal under the Prevention of Money Laundering (PMLA) Act, 2002 that had upheld the order for attachment of the properties owned by the Khans. These include residential apartments in Pedder Road in Mumbai, Koregaon Park in Pune and six cars.

The court, however, stated that the Pedder Road house where Rheema and her son live and a car — Porsche Cayenne worth Rs 61.5 lakh — may not be attached immediately and granted Khan two weeks to approach the PMLA tribunal to seek further stay on the attachment order.

In February 2007, the Income Tax department had ordered the attachment of the flats in Pune and Mumbai worth Rs 8.64 crore and Rs 6 crore.

The deputy director of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) passed a provisional order of attachment of Khan's cars on June 30, 2011. The cars included the Cayenne, three Mercedez Benz worth Rs 28.84 lakh, Rs 27.01 lakh and Rs 33 lakh respectively, an Opel Corsa worth Rs 4.90 lakh and a Hyundai Sonata worth Rs 12.72 lakh.

Rheema first challeneged the attachment order before the ED's adjudicating authority on November 3, 2011. Khan then approached the appellate tribunal under PMLA seeking a stay on the provisional order of attachment. The tribunal, however, rejected Khan's application on February 2, 2012. It is then that Rheema approached HC.

Except for one car, the other cars can be attached forthwith, said ED's counsel Revati Dere.

In her petition, Rheema contended that the attachment of their property would cause grave hardship to them as she and her son live in their house in Mumbai and her aged parents live in their Pune flat.

Rheema  also contended that their property cannot be attached under PMLA as they had purchased it much before the Act came into force in 2002.
Courtesy:
Express news service : Mumbai, Thu Jan 31 2013, 06:05 hrs
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/hc-dismisses-hasan-ali-khan-wife-s-plea/1067186/0

Hawala billionaire Hasan Ali jailed for passport fraud

PATNA: Pune-based horse breeder and alleged hawala racketeer Hasan Ali Khan is the newest inmate of the Beur central jail in the outskirts of Patna.

The billionaire businessman was sent to jail by a local court on Friday, in connection with a ‘forged passport’ case registered against him at the Kotwali police station in Patna.

Earlier, Khan was brought here from Mumbai’s Arthur Road jail where he had been lodged after his arrest on money laundering charges by the Enforcement Directorate.

Khan is alleged to have procured a passport on a fake address in the Alamganj area of Patna City in 1997. The court had earlier issued a production warrant against Khan in connection with an FIR against him in 2011.

It was after several failed attempts and much legal wrangling that the Patna police finally managed to obtain the custody of Khan, who is facing trial in one of the biggest tax evasion scams in the country.

According to a police officer, Khan managed to procure a slew of passports from different places. “The first one was issued from Hyderabad in 1986, while the second was issued from London in 2003. He also managed to get two more passports issued in 2005, from Pune and Mumbai,” he said.

In 2011, the then investigating officer in the forged passport case, deputy superintendent of police Lalit Mohan Sharma, had camped in Mumbai for 20 days to get the custody of Khan. But he had to return empty handed due to the ongoing ED probe into the tax evasion case.

Khan had also moved the Patna high court for anticipatory bail but he did not get relief from there. The ED had booked Khan under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act for allegedly parking a huge amount of black money in Swiss bank accounts using fake passports.

Besides, the two central agencies are also investigating charges against him for alleged violation of the Passport Act.

Patna senior superintendent of police (SSP) Amrit Raj said Khan had managed to procure a passport on a Patna address which bore no mention of the house number or the road on which it was located.
Courtesy:
6 Jan 2013
Hindustan Times (Mumbai)
Avinash Kumar letters@hindustantimes.com
http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx