Mail Today, New Delhi, Friday, April 8, 2011 2 NEWS

POLITICIANS and ministers inMaharashtra are apparently gettingjittery as the Enforcement Direc-torate (ED), which is on the HasanAli black money trail, probes deeper.

Sources in the agency, who did notwant to be named for obvious reasons,said a senior Maharashtra minister hadcalled up officials a few times in the pasttwo weeks to find out what Ali hadrevealed to them.

They, however, did not divulge the minis-ter’s name. They also refused to disclosewhether the minister had called them updirectly or through his aides. But the factthat the call was made meant it wasintended to put pressure on the agency.

A source said the minister asked the EDto “control the information being passedout of the interrogation room” so as toattract minimum wrath of theSupreme Court, which is hear-ing a public interest petition onthe black money issue filed byveteran lawyer Ram Jethmalani.

Officials said the investigatorswere facing pressure from politi-cians across the country to “goslow” and to “hush up” the case.They said they have been receiv-ing calls from people who want tocheck if the ED has mentionedthe names of all those whom Alinamed during his interrogationin its report to the SC.

Officials said the agency hasbeen under “tremendous pres-sure” right since the day MAILTODAY first reported that Ali hadtold the investigators that three

ED allegespressure inHasan case Hasan Ali Khan had earlier told the ED

that he had laundered money forthree Maharashtra CMs, among others.

By Aditi Raja in Mumbai

Maharashtra chief ministerswere among those whose moneyhe had laundered.

An official said the “order” fromthe political circles is uniform —“go slow” and “don’t reveal toomuch”. “We are being asked ifthis is the first sensitive case weare handling that we don’t how ithas to be done,” the official said.

Many political heavyweightsand bureaucrats are using theirclout and pressure tactics in anattempt to block their namesfrom going public in the blackmoney case.

With the SC asking the ED towiden the ambit of the blackmoney probe beyond one individ-

ual, i.e. Ali, there’s palpable ten-sion among the political class aswell as other influential people.

“Ever since the report was sub-mitted in the SC and the result-ing anger that the courtexpressed on the lack of action

initiated against the othersinvolved in money laundering,many feelers have come fromother influential people, whohave also offered incentives tomany officers for suppressing the

probe,” an official said.Sources said the agency had a

tough time video-recording Ali’sdisclosures because he refused torepeat on record what he had toldthe ED during his weeklong cus-tody after his arrest on March 17.

“Ali’s family was underimmense pressure to stop himfrom naming people during hisinterrogation. When he learnt ofthis, he went silent. The video-taping of his interrogation hasnot exactly strengthened thecase,” an official said.

According to ED sources, it isnot just politicians who are push-ing for a hush-up. The under-world, with whom Ali is supposed

to have done arms dealings,too, has not been silent. Offi-cials said the Pune stud-farmowner has expressed fears forhis safety if he spoke againstthe mafia. In the past twoweeks, after reports emergedthat he had revealed somenames, his family has receivedthreats from the underworld.

“The family has been threat-ened. A relative of Ali has beenasked to pass on the messageto him that if his disclosuresupset the functioning of themafia transactions, he will bemade to pay for it,” a sourcesaid. In fact, Ali had in a letterto the court sought protectionfor his family.

Although the ED has notpressed for Ali’s further cus-tody, his advocate I.P. Bagaria isunsure if he will be granted bailon Friday. “The matter is com-ing up for hearing but the judgein-charge may not hear thematter, in which case the pleawill be heard on Monday,” hesaid. Ali is lodged in the ‘AndaCell’ of the Arthur Road jail.

A Maharashtra ministerasks sleuths to go slow

SC allows NRI plea in deathdamages case THE SUPREME Court on Thurs-day allowed NRI Kunal Saha,who is seeking damages for hiswife’s death due to medicalnegligence, to get foreignexperts examined throughvideo conferencing in pro-ceedings before the top con-sumer court for determiningthe quantum of compensation.

The order assumes signifi-cance in view of the fact thatit is difficult to get a doctor todepose against another doc-tor from the same country.

Saha had approached the SCafter the National ConsumerDisputes Redressal Commissionturned down his request toplace opinions of John Burke,economist from Cleveland, andJohn Broughton, noted psychologist from Columbia University though video-conferencing. Mail Today

Communityradio ad rateto be hikedINFORMATION and broad-casting minister Ambika Sonion Thursday chided her officialsfor doling out crumbs for com-munity radio stations (CRS).

Speaking at the first nationalconference on CRS, she said:“It is shameful that DAVP(Directorate of Advertisingand Visual Publicity) gives out`1 for each minute of govern-ment advertisement broadcaston these stations.” Soni, whocame to know of the DAVP pol-icy during her interaction withCRS managers, asked theDAVP to revise the rates.

According to the existingpolicy, a CRS has only five min-utes of commercial air time inan hour’s broadcast. And mostof these stations hardly havemore than five hours of pro-gramme in a day. There are 107CRS in India, mostly run bythe educational institutes andNGOs. Mail Today