Hasan Ali aide granted anticipatory bail in fake passport case

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court today granted anticipatory bail to Kolkata-based businessman Kashinath Tapuriah in connection with a fake passport case of Pune-based stud farm owner Hasan Ali Khan.

Both Khan and his close aide Tapuriah are presently lodged at Arthur Road jail after they were arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for an alleged multi-crore money laundering scam.

Worli police had in 2008 registered a case of forgery and cheating against Khan for procuring fake passports. He was last week questioned by the police in the case.

Tapuriah, accused of facilitating the procurement of fake passports, today approached the high court seeking anticipatory bail apprehending arrest in the case.

According to his lawyer, Khan has been granted bail in the case and the police has not yet seized the alleged fake passports.

Accepting his plea, Justice A M Thipsay granted the businessman bail on a surety of Rs 50,000.

Police had contended that Khan lost his original passport issued by the Hyderabad's Regional Passport Office in 2006 when he was in England.

Subsequently, he was given a fresh passport, valid for a year, by the Indian High Commission in England. He used that to go to Switzerland and Canada, police said. Later, Khan applied for a new passport in Pune.

However, police found that the billionaire had two other passports procured by submitting fake documents, one issued in Mumbai and the other in Patna.