Pune stud farm owner Hasan Ali Khan was granted bail in the multi-crore money laundering scam on Friday.
The Bombay high court’s decision to grant Mr Khan bail on a surety of `5 lakhs came as a major setback to the Enforcement Directorate; the court observed that there was nothing in the ED’s case to show that the money amassed by Mr Khan was ill-gotten, or the proceeds of crime. In his order, Justice A.M. Thipsay observed, “There are no ingredients of the proceeds of crime in the case made out by the ED against the accused. He deserves to be released on bail.”
However, separately, none of the 2G scam accused has been granted bail so far as the Supreme Court has said no bail petition can be entertained till charges are framed.
This was stated by the apex court bench monitoring the investigation of the 2G case while rejecting the bail application of DMK MP Kanimozhi and Kalaignar TV CEO Sharad Kumar, who were the first to approach the apex court.
Later, the apex court rejected the bail of Cineyug promoter Karim Morani, who sought it on health grounds. However, the top court directed the CBI to provide Mr Morani the required treatment as ordered by the trial judge.
Mr Khan (53) was arrested by the ED in March for alleged involvement in the multi-crore money-laundering scam on the observations of the apex court and was booked under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
After granting bail, the court, however, directed Mr Khan to appear before the ED every day and stay either in Mumbai or Pune. Additional solicitor-general Darius Khambatta, appearing for the ED, requested the court to stay the bail order for a week to enable the agency to appeal the judgment in the Supreme Court. Justice Thipsay, however, turned down the plea, saying, “There is no apprehension that he (Mr Khan) will abscond or tamper with evidence. Hence there is no necessity to stay the bail order.”
Meanwhile, two more accused in the 2G spectrum allocation issue, Unitech MD Sanjay Chandra and Swan director Vinod Goenka, have moved the Supreme Court for bail and their petitions are to be taken up after two weeks on receiving the CBI’s response.
Taking note of the SC’s observation that the bail applications of the accused could not be entertained till charges are framed, the Delhi high court had also denied bail to former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura and three Reliance officials — Gautam Doshi, Hari Nair and Surendra Pipara.
Strangely, 2G scam case key accused A. Raja, the former Union minister for communications, has not moved the higher courts for bail after his plea was rejected by the trial court at the time of his production before it the first time after his arrest by the CBI in February.