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Stud farm owner Hasan Ali Khan, accused of massive money laundering and tax evasion, was late on Monday night arrested by the Enforcement Directorate which carried out multi-city searches at his Pune home and his associates' premises, cracking the whip to meet Tuesday's Supreme Court deadline.
53-year-old Ali who was detained in Pune was brought to Mumbai at 6 pm, was grilled by the ED for nearly six hours before they put him under arrest around midnight.
ED officials took him to his posh house in Peddor Road in South Mubai where he was quizzed till 10.30 pm before the ED officials took him to the their headquarters at Nariman Point.
The ED officials also inspected documents related top alleged hawala transactions. He was further questioned about his alleged money laundering deals and put under arrests around midnight Ali has been charged under various sections of the the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
Hot in pursuit of black money trail after the apex court rap on the government, about a ED officials from Mumbai went to Pune to search the premises of Khan in posh Koregaon Park area on Monday morning.
"I am innocent. I haven't done anything wrong," he told mediapersons before entering the ED office. Sources said searches were carried out at the premises of Khan and his associates at Pune, Mumbai, Gurgaon, Kolkata and Hyderabad.
In Kolkata, searches were conducted at the residence of businessman Kashinath Taparia. ED sources told PTI that Taparia was an alleged aide of Khan but Taparia claimed he had no "partnership" with him at all.
ED sources had said the statement of Khan's associate and hotelier Philip Anand Raj was being recorded in Delhi.
Khan's lawyer R K Gaur said he is being taken to ED's Mumbai office for further interrogation and to possibly confront him with "some documents."
Khan's arrest came on the eve of the Supreme Court's March 8 deadline to the government to inform it how it proposed to tackle black money hoarders.
The Supreme Court while blasting the Centre last Thursday for not having the "will power" to act against black money hoarders asked why Khan and others were not subjected to custodial interrogation despite the probe agencies possessing sufficient material against them.
The previous searches at Khan's Koregaon home were in January 2007 when the Income Tax department had raided the premises.