Hasan Ali Links With Women Politicians Exposed

Hasan Ali Khan, who is in jail facing money laundering charges, has links with women politicians, revealed his close aide Tapuria, who is also cooling heels along with him. In a statement to Enforcement Directorate Tapuria revealed the alleged links of Hasan Ali Khan with the political class, including two high-profile women politicians from Andhra Pradesh. The statement of Kashinath Tapuria has been video-recorded in accordance with the Supreme Court's directive.

Tapuria told ED that Khan spoke to him about an intimate relationship with a woman politician from Andhra Pradesh in the year 1994-1995. In his statement to ED, part of the agency's I,000-plus page chargesheet against Khan placed before a special court last week, Tapuria said Khan claimed to have a "very good influence" on the politician who has since moved out of the state. The businessman said he saw the woman politician and Khan together when Tapuria and the alleged hawala kingpin stayed at a Mumbai hotel in 1996.

Tapuria also provided details of Khan's alleged proximity to another woman politician from Andhra Pradesh, a vocal former Union minister. He said Khan told him about his desire to gift a diamond -- sourced from a Mumbai-based hawala operator -- to the former Union minister whom he called an important person. Khan also disclosed he had met this woman politician through a Delhi-based Congressman accused of involvement in anti-Sikh violence in 1984, Tapuria told ED. According to Tapuria, Hasan Ali also claimed to have an indirect line with an influential ruling party politician in Delhi through a Mumbai-based builder.

Hasan Ali Khan's alleged links to Andhra Pradesh politicians can be attributed to his being born and brought up in Hyderabad and his alleged career as a conman in the city. Till the late 90s, Khan along with his former wife Mehbooba Khan, lived in the upscale Banjara Hills area. He moved to Pune in 2000 and is now married to Rheema Khan.