ED suspends official for going easy on Hasan Ali
06 May 2011
The Enforcement Directorate has suspended one of its senior officials who investigated alleged 'hawala' kingpin Hasan Ali Khan for money laundering between 2006 to 2008, on the ground that he was deliberately going slow on the case.
During a departmental inquiry, the ED found that Amarendra Kumar tried to scuttle the probe against Khan and his aide Kashinath Tapuriah, and also leaked information to the accused.
The special director of the ED is reportedly conducting an inquiry against Singh which includes bribery charges.
Ali is believed to have stashed away $8 billion of illicit money in foreign bank accounts. He was arrested in March and moved to Mumbai from Pune, where he owns a stud farm and led a lavish lifestyle.
He has been asked to pay Rs70,000 crore as a penalty for tax evasion, but his lawyer claims that he is innocent of all the charges against him.
The ED will file its first charge-sheet in the Hasan Ali case on Friday.
