JOIN US The court on Tuesday said Hasan Ali must be booked under anti-terrorism laws and be subjected to stringent IPC charges for his crimes.
A Bench of Justices B Sudershan Reddy and S S Nijjar also asked the government to hand over the forged passport case against him to the CBI. Hasan Ali is suspected to have had links with arms dealers and had allegedly involved in terror activities to deflect the attention of the investigators on his trail.
"There is an angle relating to his links with arms dealers. There is a terror angle. (There is ) threat to national security. Whether these facts which are emanating from investigation in the case registered under PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act), FEMA, Passport Act, would they attract any penal consequences," Justice Reddy asked. The court made its suggestions to Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam while also directing that the ED director should monitor the probe against Hasan Ali and file his status report within ten days. In his submission, Senior counsel Anil Divan wanted the government to ensure maximum security for the Pune businessman as he could be facing threats from the powers behind him who may be afraid of their names getting out in the investigations.
He referred to the case of Ashutosh Asthana, a Provident Fund Scam accused, who had died in a Ghaziabad jail in Uttar Pradesh in his judicial custody.
Fifty-three -year-old Ali was detained in Pune on Monday and later taken to Mumbai for a six-hour interrogation by the ED, following which he was arrested.
Subramaniam assured the court during the hearing that officials from the ED transferred or sent to their parent cadres while on the Hasan Ali case could be brought back.
He also submitted that he would ensure that no adjudication proceedings were held before the completion of the probe in the matter.