No bail for Hasan, aide
A sessions court on Friday rejected the bail application of Pune-based racehorse owner and alleged tax defaulter Hasan Ali Khan and his aide Kashinath Tapuriah.
Rejecting the bail application, the principal sessions judge, Swapna Joshi, agreed with the prosecution that granting them liberty at this juncture was not justified.
While opposing the bail application, the Enforcement Directorate alleged that Khan had obtained $300 million from sale of weapons.
According to the ED, this fact was revealed when some documents, which were signed by Khan and notarised in London, were recovered during the investigation.
ED counsel Ujjwal Nikam, argued that both the accused had hatched a criminal conspiracy with international arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi.
“Thus logical inference could be drawn that they had indulged in conspiracy to ‘wage war against the nation’ a serious offence under the Indian Penal Code,” Mr Nikam said.
I.P. Bagaria and Girish Kulkarni, lawyers of Khan and Tapuriah respectively, argued that the offences alleged to have been committed by the accused pertained to the period prior to the enactment of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act of 2002 (PMLA), under which they had been charged.
They contended that the ED had filed a complaint against the accused only under Section 3 of the PMLA, and had not filed any further complaint under the IPC for offence of “waging war against nation”.
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