[1]The Enforcement Directorate will attach an estimated Rs 50 crore of assets of Pune stud farm owner and alleged tax defaulter Hasan Ali Khan and his Kolkata-based associate Kashinath Tapuriah in a money laundering case.
The Adjudicating Authority of the agency based here recently endorsed an order of ED's Mumbai office in this regard, paving way for attachment of the duo's immovable properties in Mumbai, Pune and Delhi and other assets, agency sources said.
As per the procedure, a regional unit of ED has to get endorsed its attachment order under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) from the Adjudicating Authority. The attachment order, according to the sources, includes Ali's high-end imported cars, including Mercedes and Porche, a flat in Pune's posh Koregaon Park area and a residential building in Mumbai besides Tapuriah's property on Prithviraj Road in Delhi.
Khan, accused of money laundering, has a Rs 62,000 crore tax liability and penalty proceedings are pending against him. The total pending tax demand against him and his associates has been pegged at Rs 89,000 crore by the Income Tax Department. Under the PMLA, the ED has powers to attach properties of a person as "proceeds of crime" to obtain the amount that has been laundered, the sources said.
Khan and Tapuriah are now lodged in jail under judicial custody in Mumbai after they were arrested by the agency earlier this year for alleged contravention of anti-money laundering laws in India and abroad.
The I-T department has raised a tax demand (without penalty) of Rs 50,329 crore against Khan, Rs 49 crore against his wife Rheema Hasan Ali Khan, Rs 591 crore against Tapuriah, Rs 20,540 crore against Tapuriah's wife Chandrika and a Rs 336 crore against a business firm floated by Tapuriah -- R M Investment and Trading Company Private Limited.
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