Mumbai, Dec 15 (IANS) Multi-millionaire Pune businessman and stud farm owner Hasan Ali was arrested and sent to jail till Dec 19 in connection with a fake passport case, the police said.
An official of the Worli police station told IANS that Ali, who was declared a “proclaimed offender” by the Bhoiwada court in May this year, has been nabbed for holding three fake passports which were acquired from Mumbai, Hyderabad and Patna.
He had applied for two more passports from Chandigarh and Guwahati, following which a case was registered early 2008, the official said.
Shortly thereafter, Ali applied for anticipatory bail, which was rejected by the Bombay High Court.
Thereafter, he neither moved the Supreme Court nor surrendered, prompting the Worli police to approach Bhoiwada court to declare him a proclaimed offender, which would enable the police to seize his property after the court’s permission.
To avoid this, the proclaimed offender must surrender to the police and face the charges.
Ali (55) was also on the watch-list of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for alleged involvement in a Rs.100 billion ‘hawala’ (illicit money transfer) scam. It registered a case against Ali in January 2007.
Ali was also under the scanner of the Mumbai Police, Income Tax department, Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) through its passport offices in different cities.