The GhOdeWaLa MysTery
Remember Hasan Ali Khan, popularly known as “Ghodewala”, since he, besides many other business ventures, ran a stud farm in Pune? He hit the headlines when in 2007 the Income Tax Department accused him of stashing an unbelievable $8 billon in the accounts of various overseas branches of UBS Bank, including some in tax havens. It was alleged that he was handling the hawala money of some top businessmen and politicians, including one whom many Opposition parties have considered for fielding in the President’s election. Of late, some urgent halchal (activity) has been noticed in the stables of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which has been pursuing Ali’s money trail for over a decade, without any remarkable success. Many have started wondering whether the investigating agencies are continuing to flog a dead horse with a specific agenda of the political masters. Meanwhile, the old man is on a weekly dialysis, shuttling between home and hospital, for long admission for other ailments. The timeline of the case has raised the finger of suspicion over the conduct of the investigating agencies, as they are relying only on certain photocopies of the account details found on 6 January 2007. The first hearing in the ED adjudication proceedings took place on 28 February 2011, and the second one took place on 4 May 2017. The proceedings have not concluded yet. During the cross examination, Arvind Kumar Singh, a senior IRS officer, who was the investigating officer of the case, admitted that the said investigation commenced after the recovery of six photocopies of documents by the I-T Department, and the ED did not verify the same and the contents of the documents. Ali’s counsel Ramakant Gaur, who is an authority on black money, has alleged that “this is not only a shoddy investigation, but also a paradigm of mala fide exercise of powers to implicate some influential politicians to settle scores”. He has pointed out that the Supreme Court has settled the law by declining to consider photocopies as evidence. Meanwhile, the I-T Department demand has surprisingly plummeted to Rs 3 crore only. Foreign banks have communicated that the so-called accounts of Ali do not exist in their records.