The court on Monday granted anticipatory bail to Kashinath Tapuriah, an aide of the Pune-based businessman.
Even as the Bombay high court on Monday granted anticipatory bail to Kashinath Tapuriah, an aide of Pune-based businessman Hasan Ali Khan, it said that Khan, too, should be discharged from the case as the police have not even managed to seize the alleged forged passports.
Granting anticipatory bail to Tapuriah, the HC called the police’s move to take his custody in an alleged 2008 fake passports case “absurd”. Tapuriah is a co-accused with Khan in a money laundering case. The Worli police had sought Tapuriah’s police custody to interrogate him in the case registered against Khan in 2008 for allegedly procuring passports based on forged documents in 1998.
But justice Abhay Thipsay on Monday observed that even Khan should be discharged from the case. The judge allowed the police to interrogate him in custody after obtaining permission from the special court trying him under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. “To deny him anticipatory bail in this case would be absurd, looking into the delay and also [that] the passport in question is not [yet] seized,” said Thipsay.
The court directed that Tapuriah be released against the payment of Rs50,000 in cash or one or two sureties of a similar amount in case he is arrested by the Worli police in the passport case.
Tapuriah’s advocate IA Bagaria argued that even three years after the case was registered, the police have not even seized the passport(s) which were allegedly procured using forged documents. “The main accused (Khan) has been granted bail in 2008 itself. How can they now seek Tapuriah’s custody?” asked Bagaria.
Public prosecutor KV Saste sought Tapuriah’s custody, saying that he is not cooperating with the police. “The police tried to question him in judicial custody earlier after the special court’s permission, but he is not cooperating,” said Saste.
Tapuriah has been directed to attend the police station daily for 10 days and later as and when required. Justice Thipsay clarified that the attendance would come into effect in case he is granted bail in the PMLA case.
The Enforcement Directorate filed a charge sheet in the special court on May 6, 2011 against Khan and Tapuriah. The charge sheet stated that Tapuriah, besides managing some of the international bank accounts of Khan, also managed to get passports for him using forged documents. He has admitted to having seven foreign accounts in his name and a foreign account in his wife Chandrika’s name.
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