Hassan Ali Khan appears before I-T authorities

Hassan Ali Khan, the Pune-based real estate consultant and stud farm owner, who is alleged to have stashed away over $8 billion in foreign banks, on Friday appeared before Income Tax authorities, apparently in connection with notices issued to him over huge tax evasions.

The I-T department had sent a show-cause notice on December 31, 2008 to Khan, demanding Rs 40,000 crore (Rs 400 billion) in taxes from him for not disclosing funds in several foreign bank accounts, including $8 billion in an account in the Zurich branch of UBS.

However, the UBS bank had recently denied any business relationship with Khan.

Though IT officials said Khan was present in the Assessment wing of their office at Churchgate in Mumbai and his statement was being recorded, they did not immediately confirm if he had appeared in connection with the 2008 notice or any other that might have been issued to him before or after that.

Earlier, in January 2007, the I-T department had raided Khan's residence at Koregaon Park in Pune and had seized documents that showed that he had $8.04 billion in a UBS account in Zurich.

The raid followed a revelation that Khan had allegedly concealed his income and not filed income tax returns since 1999. The I-T department had also raided his properties in Mumbai and Hyderabad.