Behind every successful man, there is a woman. Investigators tracking funds of Hasan Ali Khan, billed as the country's largest tax evader, are racing against time to prove the popular adage true in this case. Wives of Khan and his associate Kashinath Tapuriah have now emerged as a "crucial" link to a huge number of investments and charges of money laundering and tax evasion, which is being probed by agencies like the Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax Department.

The involvement of the extent of both the wives -- Rheema Hasan Ali Khan and Chandrika Tapuriah -- is being corroborated by investigators by the sheer amount of unpaid taxes that the I-T department assessment has charged them with.