The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Centre and the Maharashtra government to give adequate protection to businessman Mr Hasan Ali Khan – accused of money laundering, tax evasion and passport forgery – and his family, following reported threat to their lives.

Meanwhile, responding to the court's query on the Government's view regarding setting up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the black money case, the Solicitor General, Mr Gopal Subramanian, said at this point in time the Government was not in favour of a SIT.

He said the agencies (Enforcement Directorate) investigating the case at present should continue with it, adding that the court may consider constituting an SIT if the probe failed to show results. He cautioned that any deflection now will prove very expensive.

During the hearing, the court directed that henceforth the statements of the accused and witnesses should be video/audio-recorded during the probe by the agencies.

The Solicitor General said the Government does not have any objection in principle regarding video/audio-recording of the statements of the accused and witnesses during the probe.

The court said it was in favour of setting up an SIT as the agencies probing the matter since 2008 have neither made substantial progress nor looked into the basic question of the sources of black money. The court added that after having gone through the ED's status reports, it did not find any mention of the black money sources in these reports.

Meanwhile, senior advocates Mr Anil Divan and Mr Rajeev Dhawan (representing petitioner and noted jurist Mr Ram Jethmalani and former police officer Mr Julio Ribeiro respectively) backed the idea of constituting a SIT to probe the black money case because the Government itself had stated that the ED officers involved in the probe were facing threats to their lives and had sought the court's directions to ensure them protection. Besides, these advocates alleged that there were attempts to ‘cover up' during the current probe.

During the hearing, the court asked the Government to submit, in a sealed cover, by April 8 (the next date of hearing) the CD and transcripts of Mr Khan's statements recorded by suspended Maharashtra police officer Mr Ashok Deshbhratar.

Meanwhile, the apex court said it did not find any reason to interfere with its own order staying a Mumbai court's order granting bail to Mr Khan. This followed a plea by Mr Khan's counsel Mr U.U. Lalit asking the apex court to reconsider its order.

The apex court said Mr Khan has the liberty to move an application seeking bail before the Mumbai court, which will in turn deal with the plea without being influenced by the apex court's order or observations. The apex court added that the ED also has the liberty to file an application seeking extension of the judicial custody period of Mr Khan.

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