By Sumitha Narayanan Kutty
Hasan Ali, time to quit horsing around
He is India's largest tax defaulter with dues over Rs 50,000 crore. Presenting Hasan Ali Khan- the 'Nine-billion dollar man'
Name: Hasan Ali Khan
Age: 58
Occupation:
Khan's I-T records: Scrap dealer
The truth: Stud-farm owner
Worth: Khan's I-T records: Rs 30 lakhs (annual income)
The truth: US$ 9 billion (in Swiss accounts)
Yes, nine billion dollars.
In fact, going by this figure, Khan could well be India's fourth richest man. The only hitch, most of that 9 billion dollars is unaccounted, black money gained through hawala transactions.
To top it up, the Income Tax Department woke up one day to realise Khan had about Rs. 50000 crores dues he had conveniently forgotten to pay. And thus, Hasan Ali Khan, or H A Khan as he is known in racing circles, caught India's attention.
The media's obsession has now shifted from the 'life and times of Libyan dictator Gaddafi' to 'Who the heck is this Hasan Ali Khan?'
An Enigma or Smart Croonie?
On record, Hassan Ali Khan claims to be a scrap dealer whose annual income equals just Rs 30 lakhs.
But we know the man is a Pune-based stud farm owner who has had a decent run in the racecourse.
Truth be told- no one in the racing fraternity knows him well. He remains 'the man who sat in the corner and kept to himself'.
And perhaps it is this knack- to lay low- that helped Khan co-exist peacefully with the world, until now.
The 'humble origins' rumour
Born in 1953, Hasan Ali Khan hailed from a Hyderabadi family. His father was an excise officer.
Hasan Ali has a brother and four sisters. Khan lived with his wife Mahbooba Khan in the posh Banjara Hills before he divorced her and shifted to Pune 10 years ago after marrying his present wife Rheema, sister of a horse-trainer, Faisal Abbas. By 2000, he had moved to Pune and was known mostly in racing circles as Hyderabad ka Ghodawala, a middle-rung horse breeder.
There are stories doing the rounds in Hyderabad that he started out young as a tuition teacher when the family hit a rough patch. But no such 'humble origin' story emerged from during the Enforcement Directorate's interrogation.
Hence, we shall stick to what is officially known. And it does not look pretty.
From the horse's mouth: Bank fraud to Hawala operator
After Class 12, Hassan Ali Khan started out as a petty trickster.
His early career was quite colourful.
*Questioned in an acid attack case (his neighbour) in 1984
*Sold antiques claiming he was a descendant of Hyderabad's royal Nizam family
*Fraudulently withdrew Rs 26 lakh from State Bank of India
*Similar case lodged by Grindlays Bank
In total, between 1991 and 1992, Khan had been arrested twice by the Hyderabad police. He had two cases of bank fraud, four cases of cheating and a case of acid attack against him during his stay in the city.
He walked free in all. How? No one knows for sure.
The failed businessman
Lady Luck may have sided him when it came to his crimes but she never did shine upon his businesses.
After losing in the antiques, car rental and scrap businesses, Khan is said to have started a jewellery shop in Kuwait with a partner based in Jammu and Kashmir sometime in 2006-07. This partnership, which is also under probe, however, did not work out for long. A metal trading company he started, Great Ventures, also went bankrupt.
Despite all that misfortune, today, H A Khan owns 10 horses, besides two floors in a swanky apartment of in Pune's Koregaon Park and a flat in the upmarket Peddar Road in Mumbai. He also owns two Mercedes and a Porsche.
The Downfall
Since 2007, the Enforcement Directorate has sought details of Khan's accounts from Swiss banks. They refused to cooperate.
But finally, there was a breakthrough during raids at his Pune and Mumbai residences between January 5 and 7 by the I-T Department and the ED.
A laptop was seized which contained a list of 10 Swiss Bank accounts reportedly stashed with over Rs 20,000 crore-all of it unaccounted for.
The investigators found solid evidence of Khan's real deal- a hawala operator for politicians and businessmen. Now, links with terrorists and the underworld are also not being ruled out.
When the raids struck, Khan knew he was busted. The 58-year-old immediately rushed to Pune's Jehangir Hospital complaining of 'severe chest pain'.
Two months later, Hasan Ali Khan found himself being handcuffed and led to jail.
So what next for the '$9 billion man'? Hold your horses, Khan would say!
Source: India Syndicate
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