New Delhi:
In the ongoing investigation against Hasan Ali, India's allegedly biggest tax evader, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday conducted raids at the residence of Amlendu Pandey, who is an AICC member and the Congress spokesman in Bihar.
Mr Pandey is suspected to have helped Mr Ali get a fake passport from Patna. The ED raided Mr Pandey's Gautam Nagar residence in Delhi and seized several documents from his house.
Mr Ali is believed to have 8 billion dollars in black money in foreign bank accounts. He was arrested earlier this month and moved to Mumbai from Pune, where he is known for his lavish cars, homes, horses and parties. (
Read: Who is Hasan Ali?)
He has been asked to pay Rs 70,000 crore as a penalty for tax evasion. His lawyer claims that Mr Ali is innocent of all the charges against him.
The Supreme Court had last week cancelled his bail. He is currently in ED's custody. The court had earlier suggested that Mr Ali be tried on terror charges because his activities seemed to involve a threat to "national security."
The Supreme Court has referred repeatedly to the government's inaction against Mr Ali in the context of a case that it is hearing on black money. The Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by former Law Minister Ram Jethmalani among others asks the government to recover crores of unaccounted-for money that has been stashed in foreign banks by Indians.