Hasan Ali a resident of Sitamarhi

From 1997 to 2010,Pune stud farm owner Hasan Ali Khan was,in the records of the local passport office.

From 1997 to 2010,Pune stud farm owner Hasan Ali Khan was,in the records of the local passport office,a permanent resident of Belsand in Bihars Sitamarhi district,and lived in Patna City,an old,congested,eastern extension of Patna best known for the holy Patna Saheb gurdwara.

A year ago,when he was already under the scanner for alleged tax default and money laundering,Hasan Ali applied to renew this passport,giving a different place of birth. He also failed to furnish details of his earlier passport,and in December 2010,the Patna Regional Passport Authority filed a complaint of forgery against him at the local Kotwali police station.

Our investigations revealed that Khan had got a passport from Hyderabad in 1986,giving a Banjara Hills address,and another from London in 2003 after claiming he had lost his passport, Patna SSP Alok Kumar said.

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On the basis of the London passport,Khan got a passport from Pune in 2005. He also got a passport with short-term validity in 2005 in Mumbai, Kumar added. In subsequent years,he tried unsuccessfully to get passports from Chandigarh and Guwahati as well.

The fake-passport case against Khan in Patna has been mentioned ever since the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested him from his Pune home on Monday. However,the ED has not sought help from the Bihar Police so far,SSP Kumar said.

In an embarrassment to the ED,Mumbai Principal Sessions Court Judge M L Tahaliyani on Friday rejected the agencys plea for Khans remand,and set him free on bail.

Regional Passport Officer Anand Kumar said Alis Patna passport gave his address as Pathan Toli,Patna City. This passport was issued five years before the Patna regional passport office began using computers,and all entries then would be made by hand.

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We suspected foul play when Khan failed to furnish details of his previous passport while applying for renewal, said an official at passport office.

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