Anything bearing Gandhiji’s face just can not be black. Was Gandhi not a symbol of ‘white’ which signifies everything pious, pure and sublime? However, in Gandhi’s Hindustan of today, the issue of black money is a real thing. Even as Indian politicians wear sparklingly white Khadi kurtas and pyjamas and a Gandhi - ‘topi’, they are often raided by the Enforcement Directorate and IT sleuths for allegedly amassing black money.
On Nov 05, 2009, a news item appearing in a section of the media simply puzzled the minds of the people. That New Delhi datelined news said that when the investigating team raided the residence of the ex-Chief Minister of Jharkhand Madhu Koda in Ranchi, they found two note counting machines lying there. Why? The possible reason could be that Koda’s fingers must have been in pain from constantly counting notes. Hence, the help of a machine to count the money: all black, of course.
CNN-IBN had announced that it has learnt that Koda admitted during his interrogation that he stashed away ` 375 crore in various Swiss bank accounts. The net worth of his Hawala trail is suspected to be close to ` 2,000 crore. He has been investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Income Tax (IT) Department for some years now and his premises were raided in 2007.
Even as the owners of black money are taking the help of note counting machines to keep track of their ill-gotten loot, in Gandhi’s land, the Government just can not issue a white paper on black money. The reason is that the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in January, 2011 that information on black money lying in tax havens abroad “can’t be made public” as it will entail violations of treaty obligations.
An intelligent reply indeed! Long live black money earned through currency notes bearing Mahatma Gandhi’s face. According to the data provided by the Swiss Banking Association Report (2006), India has more black money than the rest of the world combined. Indian Swiss Bank account assets are worth 13 times the country’s national debt.
The issue of black money has risen like a hydra in India. Hasan Ali or Syed Mohammed Hassan Ali Khan is only the tip of the iceberg. He, however, is supposed to be the biggest tax evader in the country. Earlier, searches were carried out at the premises of Hasan Ali and his associates at Pune, Mumbai, Gurgaon, Kolkata and Hyderabad. Hasan Ali had stated earlier that he is a scrap dealer with an annual income of ` 30 lakh. But he reportedly throws lavish parties, is passionate about racing horses and owns quite a few and is said to also own a fleet of expensive cars. 
The Supreme Court has already described stashing of black money in tax havens abroad as “national plunder.” The apex court also asked the government to give it all the information it had on Indians who had transferred their money overseas. When the apex court bench of Justice B. Sudershan Reddy and Justice S.S. Nijjar were told that the amount of black money stashed abroad could be over $1 trillion, Justice Nijjar wanted to know how many zeros were there in a trillion.
The court’s observations came after a petition by Ram Jethmalani seeking directions to the government to disclose the amount of money that had been stashed away by Indian nationals in foreign banks and the steps taken to bring that money back to the country. Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had said that the government has taken note of the Supreme Court’s observations and action will be taken against Hasan Ali.
Let us now go back to the Hasan Ali-case. In reply to the Income Tax department in connection with the show cause notice issued to him (the reply was filed on March 15, 2011 by Hasan Ali’s chartered accountant), it has been said that the IT Department prepared their case because of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) proceedings and the Supreme Court hearing. Ali, allegedly the biggest tax evader in the country’s long-sustained history of black money, had also asked for a one month extension to the tribunal hearing that was slated to take place on March 23.
It is very pertinent here to mention that a Mumbai court had rejected the ED’s request for Hasan Ali’s custody for 14 days as the government investigating agency could not produce “enough evidence” to sustain its claims that he (Hasan Ali) is linked to ‘havala’ or money-laundering. The alleged black money mogul was granted bail. Disclosing the list of defaulters in the Rajya Sabha on 4 August 2009, the Minister of State for Finance S S Palanimanickam said in a written reply that Hassan Ali Khan tops the list of tax defaulters in India with an outstanding tax arrear of more than ` 50,000 crore (USD 10 billion).
Former Union Minister and BJP MP Arun Shourie said that Ali Khan is known to have connections with the underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, known to have been channeling very large amounts from unknown sources into the Indian stock market and who had 8 to 9 billion dollars in the UBS and other banks of Switzerland, besides being responsible for ‘hawala’ transactions (money laundering) of over ` 35,000 crore (USD 7 billion) through Swiss banks.
What an embarrassment for the  Enforcement Directorate, a local court recently rejected its plea seeking remand of Hasan Ali Khan for his custodial interrogation in a money laundering case and granted bail to the controversial businessman. The court granted him bail for ` 80,000 and two sureties. The court refused to stay the order for ED to file an appeal to the higher court. The court said that the ED failed to prove that there existed a case under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
In the case of Hasan Ali, the PMLA just could not be invoked because to invoke the PMLA the suspect should have committed a criminal offence and generated money from it. If the suspect converted this into tainted money, then it becomes a case under PMLA. The ED failed to prove that he generated money in the forgery case and laundered it.
The ED says that it has evidence of a $300 million transfer to him (via a Chase Manhattan Bank account in New York) from billionaire Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, whose arms supplies to Tamil terrorists, the LTTE were revealed during an investigation into the 1991 assassination of Rajiv Gandhi.
“Hyderabad ka Ghodawala”
Hasan Ali was accused in six cheating cases between 1990 and 93 thus earning the title ‘Chor’ Hasan. In racing circles in Pune and Mumbai, he is also known as ‘Hyderabad ka Ghodawala’.
During the horse-racing season, he would shuttle between Pune and Mumbai. Having an obsession for horse racing, Hasan Ali could be seen sitting in the last corner seats at the Royal Western India Turf Club (race course) in Mumbai with wife Rheema wearing his favourite safari suit.
A strict disciplinarian when it comes to time management, Hasan Ali would reach at exactly 11 am and leave by 3 pm from the race course. From a very small beginning as a businessman who ran a car rental service, he went on to earn millions.
Allegedly having a ‘bad past’, Hasan Ali is also ill-reputed for having duped the State Bank of India of very large amounts of money. It is alleged that he had once dealt with S. A. Alam, the then Manager of State Bank of India’s Charminar Branch in Hyderabad. With the help of P. R. Khan and Azad Khan, he reportedly launched an export business and cheated the SBI. Sadly enough, Alam lost his job for the ‘bad finances’ he had conducted with Hasan Ali.
Khan tried multiple businesses but failed in most of them. Once, he also tried his luck in the business of artefacts. It was while he was in this business that he told many persons that he is a descendent of the royal Nizams.
Swill Bank Connections
The Swiss Bank’s nexus with Hasan Ali was revealed when official raids were conducted at his Pune and Mumbai residences between January 5 and 7 this year by the Income Tax Department and the ED. A laptop seized from the Mumbai address contained a list of 10 Swiss Bank accounts reportedly stashed with over ` 20,000 crore: all of it unaccounted for. IT said that the money came from ‘hawala’ transactions Khan conducted for politicians and businessmen. Hasan Ali transferred money to a large number of countries including Mauritius and Madagascar and then re-routed the money to India through bogus companies in order to evade tax.
He opened his first overseas account with UBS Singapore in 1982 with $1.5 million. But after some time, he received $300m in this account allegedly from international arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi’s Chase Manhattan Bank account in New York. After the $240 million transaction, the account moved from UBS Singapore to UBS Zurich in 1986. By December 1997, the deposit amount reached $560 million. He could not operate this account as the Swiss authorities froze it saying that the “Funds were from weapons sales.” By 1999, the same account mysteriously increased to $969 million and by 2001, a refund of $300 million was deposited as ‘funds from weapon sales’ into the account. A little later, the account became non-operational. As on August 31, 2006, the balance in the account was US$6.6 billion and the balance as on November 2, 2006 stood at $7.7 billion. The balance as on December 8, 2006 was $8.04 billion.
Terrorist Connections
It is alleged that Hasan Ali has connections with terrorists and the underworld. The cash, it is suspected, was being parked by Arabs who, after the 9/11 World Trade Center bombings, were finding it difficult to invest with European and UK banks. He is also alleged to be having links with Dawood Ibrahim, the dreaded don who masterminded the Dalal Street blasts.
The ED has traced Khan’s alleged transaction with Adnan Khashoggi through a notarized statement of Khan signed on 29 June 2003 in London. The document contains a letter written by Khan to Prabhu Guptara, director, Organizational Development, Woflsberg Executive Development Centre, Switzerland (a subsidiary of UBS), seeking explanations why one of his Swiss accounts had been tagged with the remark: ‘Funds from weapons sales’, and had been made inoperable.

Amlan Home Chowdhury