Where, for instance, is Amir Bhai, also known as Mohammed Ameer Deen Habib? The CBI offers few clues on the most crucial link connecting the Jain slush money to foreign exchange violations. "Amir Bhai is in Hongkong, but operates out of Singapore regularly," says one official. DOE officials should have more information but they claim otherwise.
Even since the investigations began, Enforcement officials have been claiming that a particular clause in the Constitution is hampering the probe. Article 20 gives an individual the right to 'safeguard his interest', and this is liberally used by those being interrogated in connection with foreign exchange violations. S.K. Jain, they say, did not leave 'helpful' clues regarding the hawala operations, making it difficult for DOE officials to really enforce the charge. A rather casual contention, it would seem.
Some officials admit in private that the DOE may have let the Jains off the hook. They quote Section 8(2) of the Foreign Exchange Regulations Act (FERA): "No person, whether an authorised dealer or a money changer, shall enter into any transaction which provides for the conversion of Indian currency into foreign currency (or vice versa) at rates of exchange other than the rates for the timebeing authorised by the RBI". But since the payments mentioned in the Jain diaries were transactions which provided for conversion of foreign currency into Indian rupees, and since the rate of exchange, other than that prescribed by the RBI, was worked out on the day of payment mentioned in the diaries, it clearly comes under the purview of FERA.
The main basis of sending FERA notices, however, has come from another source altogether. Some diskettes recovered from one of Jain's houses in south Delhi in March 1995, offer some valuable clues in the form of one crucial entry. Dated February 4, 1993, it reads: Amir Bhai, Rs 5 crore. The DOE believes that Jain received Rs 5 crore from unauthorised persons and converted it into Indian currency through Amir Bhai.
And since the DOE's involvement in this case is limited to FERA violations, it is not known how and to whom this money was distributed. Interestingly, the Jains, who used Article 20 to allegedly mislead the DOE, have been served FERA notices asking them why action should not be initiated against them. But Home Ministry officials now say that the DOE took a casual view of the situation when the diaries were first recovered and later during Jain's interrogation. "Initially there was no view at all. Later under pressure, the DOE decided to look at the cases again," say sources. In fact, they say, the CBI took several months to hand over the details of the transactions to the DOE. And that was enough time for some crucial evidence to be destroyed.