Hasan Ali Khan appears before IT authorities

Khan, who was "absconding" for about two years, arrived at the Assessment Wing of the Income Tax department here around noon and was there for about five hours, IT sources said.

"Recovery and penalty proceedings are going on and the penalty runs into several thousand crore rupees," said a senior Income Tax official. Another official maintained that the penalty alone could be in the region of around Rs 40,000 crore.

The latest summons to Khan which prompted his appearance today was served on Monday, the official said, adding he could be called again.

In January 2007, the IT department had raided Khan's residence at Koregaon Park in Pune and seized documents that showed he allegedly had USD 8.04 billion in a UBS account in Zurich.

The raid followed information that Khan had allegedly concealed his income and not filed tax returns since 1999. The Department had also raided his properties in Mumbai and Hyderabad.

According to the Enforcement Directorate(ED), as of December 8, 2006, Khan had USD 8.04 billion in the UBS account.

The ED figure was sourced from a 2006 letter by a UBS wealth management executive which had said "Khan can withdraw USD 6 billion and was free to invest this amount as and when he chooses to do so and that the balance amount of USD 2.04 billion would remain bound with UBS until January 15, 2007, after which Khan was free to invest the same as and when he chooses to do so."

The ED in Mumbai also issued a nation-wide alert in connection with Khan's dealings to obtain information about his investments and transactions in the country.

The ED and the Income Tax department along with the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Maharashtra are probing the illegal investments and charges of money laundering against Khan.

The ED, according to sources, now wants to obtain all possible information from various state and central law enforcement agencies about the finances of Khan in its probe to track his money trail.

On February 11, the Supreme Court had asked the Centre to ensure that Khan did not leave the country in connection with the black money case.

The UBS bank had, however, on February 16 issued a statement denying any business relationship with Khan.