The Mumbai Police has nothing so far to prove that Pune businessman Hasan Ali procured two fake passports.
MUMBAI: The Mumbai Police has nothing so far to prove that Pune businessman Hasan Ali procured two fake passports. In fact, the only evidence that could have nailed him is said to be untraceable.
Investigators said Ali got some documents destroyed at the regional passport office at Worli in connivance with at least two officials to wriggle out of the fake passports case.
Ali had allegedly submitted fudged documents to procure the two fake passports — issued from Patna in 1998 and Mumbai in 2005 — under the tatkal scheme. Ali also had an original passport that was issued in Hyderabad.
The “fudged” documents appear to have been destroyed, Ashok Deshbrathar, deputy commissioner of police (zone III), said. The police have slapped fresh charges of disappearance of evidence, in addition to forgery and cheating, against Ali, he said.
The police suspect that Ali got the documents destroyed when he was on the run for almost eight months.
Soon after his arrest last week, the police had raided Ali’s farmhouses in Pune and flats in Mumbai to find the two alleged fake passports. “We have proof to show that an assistant passport officer received a call from a person in London to speed up issuance of the passport [from Patna],” a senior police officer who is part of the investigating team said.
The police had sought the help of handwriting experts after Ali’s arrest. “Had the documents been there, we could have tallied them with his handwriting. But now that seems impossible,” a police officer said.
“It is likely that he burnt both the passports to destroy the evidence,” said the officer.
“Without the passports, it is almost impossible to find out about his visits to other countries and the purpose of those visits.”
Ali, who was remanded in police custody till December 23, was admitted to the JJ Hospitals on Saturday after he complained of chest pain. He also suffers from diabetes and kidney ailments, the police said.
The Enforcement Directorate had told the Bombay High Court last year that Ali was worth over $8 billion and there were indications that he was part of an international crime syndicate with money flowing in from “proceeds of heinous crimes like terrorism, gun-running, corruption, and forgery.”
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