Mumbai:
Hasan Ali, the Pune-based stud farm owner alleged to be the country's biggest tax evader, may soon face criminal proceedings. Sources in the income tax department have told NDTV that the officials plan to initiate criminal proceedings against him by moving court.
Ali appeared before the income tax department in Mumbai on Friday. The assessment wing of the I-T department had issued summons to him in connection with unpaid taxes.
Ali has been under the scanner since it emerged that he had parked over Rs 36,000 crore in seven undisclosed Swiss accounts.
The income tax department earlier ad imposed a penalty on Hasan Ali which he challenged. But after his appeal was turned down, Ali had no choice but to appear before the tax officials.
Ali spent nearly six hours at the income tax office in Mumbai as officials tried to work out the amount due on him. The officials were trying to arrive at a penalty assessment figure.
Sources say Hasan Ali has may be charged a penalty of nearly Rs 40,000 crore.
Ali's money trail first emerged in 2008, when the I-T department told the Bombay High Court about his tax evasion and Swiss accounts revealed during a raid.
Till the late 90s, Ali, along with his wife Mehbooba Khan and two sons, lived in Banjara Hills - one of the most expensive addresses in Hyderabad.
Here, between 1990 and 1992, he was accused in six cheating cases that earned him the title of Chor Hasan.
By 2000, he had moved to Pune and was known mostly in racing circles as Hyderabad ka Ghodawala, a middle-rung horse breeder.
But in income tax raids, what emerged was his life as a hawala operator.
His operations spread across many cities with bank accounts and properties in Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai and Delhi.
As the BJP campaign intensifies against the government's inaction on black money parked overseas, the agencies have now cracked the whip. But it also leads to the question: Why no action against him till now?