New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked
Centre to consider invoking anti-terror and stringent IPC
charges against Pune stud owner Hasan Ali Khan, accused of
massive money laundering and tax evasion and suspected of
having links with arms dealers and terror-related activities.
A bench of justices B Sudershan Reddy and SS Nijjar
also sought the government`s response for entrusting to the
CBI the forged passport case against Khan on the ground that
investigations were not going in the right direction.
The bench suggested invoking of anti-terror laws like
Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and other stringent
provisions of the Indian Penal Code owing to Khan`s alleged
links with various arms dealers including Adnan Khashogi and
terror-related activities, impinging national security.
"There is angle relating to his links with arms
dealers. There is a terror angle. Threat to national security.
Whether these facts which are emanating from investigation in
the case registered under PML, FEMA, Passport Act, would they
attract any penal consequences, the bench queried, while
directing the Centre to explore its suggestions.
Senior counsel Anil Divan expressed apprehension over
threat to Khan`s life as he had enough material to expose the
powers-that-be behind the various murky deals and wanted the
Government to ensure his security.
The bench expressed displeasure that the probe against
Khan in the fake passport case had not proceeded in the right
direction with right speed "as nothing is moving despite the
magnitude of the issue."
It asked the Director of the Enforcement Directorate
(ED) to personally supervise the ongoing investigation and
place a status report covering the concerns on national
security expressed by the petitioner.
The court issued the directions while hearing a public
interest litigation filed by eminent jurist Ram Jethmalani,
seeking recovery of huge corpus of black money stashed in
banks abroad by Indians.
Khan was arrested last night by the Enforcement
Directorate which carried out searches at his Pune home and
that of his associates` premises in several cities ahead of
today`s Supreme Court deadline.
53-year-old Ali, first detained in Pune, was later
taken to Mumbai and grilled by the ED for nearly six hours
before being put under arrest.
The ED placed a status report on Khan`s statements
recorded during interrogation.
Concerned over allegations that the probe was being
scuttled by vested interests, the bench asked government to
furnish details of the four officials abruptly transferred
midway during the investigation.
PTI
