Besides the Swiss Bank Account

Things you did not know about Hasan Ali

Among the many strange things about a man said to have $8 billion is this: Hasan Ali Khan’s flat is mortgaged… twice over. That might qualify for an income tax exemption, but when a man owes the Government some Rs 50,000 crore in tax penalties, it’s really not going to help.

Also, unusually for a man with a home loan, Khan owns three Mercedes’ and a Porsche. When the Enforcement Directorate wanted him to come to Mumbai, he told them, “Mein Mercedes ke neeche kisi gaadi mein baitha hi nahin hoon (I have never sat in a car below a Mercedes).” The ED was taking him to Pedder Road, where Khan had a locker. If they had listened to him when he told them, “Arre tumko kuchh nahin milega (You won’t find anything in it),” they could have saved some fuel. As predicted, the locker was empty. He also chided the officers for spouting random figures about his wealth: “If I were so rich, why would my house be mortgaged twice?”

ED officials say Khan is not a namedropper. Nor is he arrogant with his interrogators. But neither does he get cowed. “Mein Pathan hoon aur aakhir tak ladoonga (I am a Pathan and I’ll fight to the end),” he told an officer.

He is a finicky man. When he was arrested, Khan left his Rs 2 lakh Cartier reading glasses at home because he thought the prized pair might get damaged. Two personal bodyguards followed him wherever he was taken. He is habituated to such security, among other things. He chain-smokes 555 cigarettes. He drinks only Black Label, and he drinks a lot of it. He also ails from hypertension and bad kidneys, which make his face look puffy. He is diabetic and needs 40 units of insulin every morning and evening. In the evening, he takes the shots after his Black Label. While in custody, he made brevity the soul of illogic in seeking permission for his alcohol: “Main marr jaoonga, mujhe peene doh (I will die, let me drink).”

Money laundering tops the list of accusations against Khan by Indian investigating agencies. Besides the Income Tax Department slapping him with a fine of Rs 50,000 crore, there are at least 10 cases against him in Hyderabad, the charges ranging from cheating to extortion. He is reported to have three forged passports, and investigating agencies think there could be more. He is accused of having laundered $240 million for arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi. Going by whispers in corners of cyberspace and the gossip street, however, Khan is an ace jockey in the safest and most dangerous derby in town: stashing away the ill-gotten funds of corrupt politicians.

Last week, Khan became a household name when he was arrested and released within days (on lack of evidence). From a symbol of India’s anger against corruption, he became a symbol of exasperation with curbing it. “Look at Shahid Balwa and A Raja. The investigating agencies have yet to find evidence of their transactions in the 2G spectrum case, but they are in Tihar jail. If the ED and IT Department have found such incriminating evidence against Hasan Ali Khan, why is he not in jail?” asks an Income Tax official, “Does his freedom not speak for itself?”

That people are curious about Khan is evident. On the days he was presented in court, crowds would gather—including policemen—to catch a glimpse of the man. Khan is a complex man. He has few friends. Though he has lived in Pune for almost a decade, the family—wife Rheema and a six-year-old son—rarely ever socialised. When they did, it was among relatives. He has a brother and four sisters. His father worked with the state excise department. Brought up in Hyderabad, Khan studied up to class XII. Along with a regular job, he started making money on the side by procuring antiques from the Nizam of Hyderabad’s various houses and selling them. He claimed to be a descendant of the Nizam’s family and told shop owners that he was selling the artefacts to start a business. He then moved to Dubai. “In those days, everyone wanted to go to Dubai,” says a source who knew the family, “It was the land of opportunity. So he too went there.”

Khan returned to buy a house at Banjara Hills in Hyderabad, and came to be counted among the rich there. He lived in the city till the late 1990s with his first wife Mehbooba and two sons. The couple divorced in 2000. “She was in no way connected with his crimes, nor did any one of us know about it,” says a relative of Mehbooba from Hyderabad, “She has no connection with him. She continues to live here.”

It was in the post-Dubai phase that horses crept into Khan’s life. It was at the races that he met Rheema Abbas, whose family owned stud farms. Her brother Faisal is a third-generation trainer. At some point, Khan began to race horses of his own. According to a derby regular, “He bought horses that others had rejected and got them cheap. He is not a stud farm owner. He would not move from his seat at the race course. Sometimes, his wife accompanied him. Often he sat alone. He rarely got into conversations with people. If his horse won, he would go and receive the trophy and then drive away in an old Merc. He would not flash his wealth. He wore a Safari suit and smoked continuously. No one gave him a second glance, nor was he a man who could influence someone’s career at the race course.” Last month, while ED officials had Khan’s Koregaon Park house under surveillance, his horse Weizhou won the Dr SC Jain trophy.

Though Khan claims to have a scrap business which has an annual turnover of Rs 30 lakh, there is no record of it. In 2007, when news of his dealings made it to TV channels, the Pune police suddenly realised that a high-profile money launderer lived in the city. “We had no reason to investigate him. There were no cases against him. Even today, there are none in Pune,” says senior inspector Bhanupratap Barge, who paid Khan a visit then. “It was not an interrogation. We had seen news about him on TV channels, so we went there to talk to him,” says Barge, “He did not appear to be very affluent.” After the preliminary inquiry, the Pune police still did not think it necessary to maintain a dossier on Khan.

His wife Rheema has a tailoring unit in the building, and her clients include several of the city’s well-off. Her brother’s wife Neda is a hair stylist in Koregaon Park, and has a fairly good clientele too. Those who have interacted with both women say that there was not much evidence of affluence. 

The ED and Income Tax Department have been investigating cases against Khan since 2007. But till recently, the investigations were on an extremely slow track. It was only after the Supreme Court got after the Centre on the black-money issue that action was initiated against him again.

Ishwar Prasad Bagaria, Khan’s lawyer, says that they have no defence gameplan, really. “We will reply to the charges by investigating agencies in court. Under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, they have to prove that the money he has, if any, is tainted. Let them prove it—and then we shall reply,” says the lawyer.

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