Preliminary investigations of the “sudden vanishing act” of Pune stud farm owner Hasan Ali revealed that he may have visited Pakistan a couple of times, said the police.
Ali was arrested by Worli police on Monday for allegedly procuring two fake passports, one from Patna and the other from Mumbai.
Prima facie, it appears that he was part of a multi-crore hawala syndicate racket and may have joined hands with the organised crime operated by underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. He is also suspected to have funded terror organisations.
Police officials said that Ali may not have flown to Pakistan and could have fled from the country via the porous borders of Nepal and Bangladesh.
“After Ali went underground, we had alerted all airports and ports about him and provided them with all his personal and passport details,” said Ashok Deshbrathar, deputy commissioner of police, (zone III).
Last year, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had stated that it had evidence to prove that the businessman had three passports and that he was worth over $8 billion. The ED had also told the Bombay High Court that there were indications that Ali was part of a strong international crime syndicate with money flowing in from “proceeds of heinous crimes like terrorism, arms trade, gun running, corruption and organised forgery”.
In February, 2008, the Regional Passport Office registered a complaint stating that Ali had fraudulently procured two passports after furnishing forged documents.
However, during sustained interrogation, Ali feigned innocence about the two passports and rubbished the allegations made against him. “The photographs and the signatures on all the three passports are the same. If needed, we will consult a handwriting expert,” said a senior police official, who is a part of the interrogation team.
Ali, however, told the police that he had been shuttling between Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad for the last couple of months.
s_poornima@dnaindia.net
