Court discharges Faryal Talpur, 13 others in fake accounts case

KARACHI: A banking court in Karachi has accepted a final charge sheet filed by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) against President Asif Ali Zardari and 19 others in a high-profile case pertaining to fake bank accounts and money laundering.

The court, however, discharged Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Women Wing Central President Faryal Talpur from the case for lack of incriminating evidence.

Investigation Officer Nabeel Mehboob filed the final charge-sheet before Judge Javed Ahmed Keerio of the Special Court (Offences in Banks), recommending to the court to try 20 accused, including President Zardari, Hussain Lawai, Anver Majid, Abdul Ghani Majid, Muhammad Arif Khan, and others. He put the names of Faryal and 13 others in the column 2 of the charge sheet in blue ink, recommending that they be discharged from the case.

The IO explained that Faryal’s name was initially mentioned as an accused in the interim charge sheet dated July 21, 2018. However, upon her request, a detailed review of her role in the case was conducted, he added.

“She had submitted a request to reconsider her role in the case as she was not provided the opportunity of fair investigation. Her plea was recorded whereby she provided certificates from sugar mills owned and operated by the Omni group and claimed that the proceeds attributed to her had been received against the sale of sugar cane grown in their family farms,” he said.

“In view of such disclosures and supporting documents, the plea of accused Faryal Talpur appears plausible in light of testimony that the amount received was for a genuine business transaction. Furthermore, it has been observed from the investigation report that no any witness has testified against her with respect to having any concern or role in opening of fake bank account or operation of the same. Therefore, her name is being placed in Column-2 ‘not sent up for trial.”

The IO stated that five accused persons — Aslam Masood, Noreen Sultan, Kiran Aman, Naseer Abdullah Hussain Lootah, and Syed Hussain Faisal Shah Jamote — had become approvers with their names placed in the column 5 as witnesses, whereas six accused persons Muhammad Ashraf, Adnan Javed, Qasim Ali, Shahzad Ali Jatoi, Sher Muhammad Mugheri and Muhammad Iqbal Khan Noori, were found involved in other inquiries unrelated to the present case, therefore, separate proceedings had been initiated against them. He said two accused Bilal Shaikh and Muhammad Iqbal Arain had passed away during the proceedings, leading to the closure of their cases.

After hearing arguments and reviewing the case record, the judge noted that the IO confirmed that no incriminating evidence was found against Faryal and her plea appeared credible based on supporting documents and testimonies.

“I have carefully reviewed the final charge sheet, the submissions of the learned SPP [FIA prosecutor] and IO, and the material available on record. The final charge sheet reflects a thorough investigation conducted across multiple forums,” he noted.

He added: “The reasons provided for not sending 14 individuals for trial, including their status as approvers, involvement in separate inquiries, or absence of incriminating evidence, are well-founded and substantiated.

“Furthermore, the investigative process appears to have adhered to principles of fairness and objectivity, particularly in cases like that of Mrs. Faryal Talpur, where her claims were duly considered and verified.”

The judge accepted the final charge-sheet, discharging Faryal and 13 others from the case.

The 20 accused, including President Zardari, who would face trial, are out on bail. Zardari has already filed an application seeking the presidential immunity under the Article 248(2) of the Constitution, which has not been decided yet. The case had initially come up for hearing before the banking court but later transferred to an Islamabad accountability court on a request made by then National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal in 2019. The bureau had filed a reference and supplementary reference against 25 accused persons before the accountability court in 2019. On September 28, 2020, the court had framed charges against the accused before the case was remanded back to the banking court in Karachi over lack of jurisdiction in the wake of amendments brought to the National Accountability Ordinance in 2023.

In the charge-sheet, the IO stated that the investigation conducted by NAB had been exhaustive and the conclusions reached had been on merit as evident from the oral and documentary evidences.

“As per the above mentioned reference filed by NAB, the accused persons have been charged with commission of offence of ‘Corruption and Corrupt Practices’ as defined in section 9 (a), (iii), (iv), (v), (vi), (viii), (xi) & (xii) of the NAO 1999 read with section 3 and 4 of Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA) 2010 punishable under section 10 of the NAO 1999,” he said.

“Hence it is submitted that the investigation conducted by NAB as well as the charge on accused persons is the same as that in the original FIR registered at FIA SBC and submitted before this Honourable Court with respect to opening of fake bank account and using the same for misappropriation of public funds and money laundering.”

The charge-sheet said the investigation conducted by NAB had been exhaustive whereby huge amount of evidence was collected in the form of oral statements as well as documentary evidence comprising account opening forms, loan applications and agreements with banks, fake invoices and receipts used for illegal disbursements for misappropriation, handwriting/signature technical report, unauthorised/illegal evaluation of properties used for collateral for obtaining loans, dissenting notes of credit department officers, change of ownership of fixed assets without any consideration/remuneration, which were admitted and explained by the various approvers in the case.