Khan faces up to four chargesheets from the ED, income-tax (I-T) department and the Worli police. A senior ED officer said if Khan cooperates with the agency, it will be filing a chargesheet for alleged offences under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) in a month. He said the other three chargesheets will include a money laundering case, an I-T department case and a multiple passports case.

The ED is currently probing Khan under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and FEMA. Khan is wanted by the ED for allegedly holding unaccounted money of up to $8 billion in Swiss bank accounts and some undisclosed accounts in the UAE.

The ED, however, feels the case of money laundering will take more time to investigate and it may take up to six months to file the chargesheet as more people are involved in the case. “We are not concentrating on where he was during the past one year. We are just confronting him with various documents regarding his accounts in Switzerland and Dubai,” the ED official said. “We need to interrogate him for a month and we will be seeking for the same from the court during the next hearing,” the official added.

Meanwhile, the ED is still holding on to the passport of Khan’s alleged co-suspect Philip Anandraj. In October, it had told the Bombay High Court that the investigation concerning Anandraj might conclude in two months. The court had directed the ED to dispose of an application filed by Anandraj seeking the release of his passport.

The ED is, however, reluctant to give it on grounds that Anandraj is not fully cooperating with the investigation and now with Khan’s arrest, the statements given by the two appear contradictory. “We will submit all this before the courts. We will also resort to stringent measures if required,” the ED official said.

Ali’s lawyer Ishwariprasad Bagaria could not be reached as his cell phone was switched off.