A special banking court has rejected the bail applications of bankers Hussain Lawai and Talha Raza, who are accused of facilitating the opening of 29 fake accounts from where Rs35 billion was subsequently transferred to different accounts.
After hearing the arguments on the bail pleas of Lawai and Raza on Saturday, the judge of the special banking court had reserved his verdict for Monday, when he finally rejected the applications of the two bankers.
Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Additional Director Mumtaz-ul-Hassan had opposed the bail pleas and said that the case was that of a white-collar crime involving around 30 fake bank accounts, in several of which over Rs40 billion was illegally deposited. Earlier, in the court of South Judicial Magistrate Shahrukh Shahnawaz, Lawai’s attorney Advocate Shaukat Hayat had opposed the investigating officer’s request to grant physical remand of the two bankers. Hayat had told the court that an inquiry of a dormant case was reopened and was not worthy in legal terms.
The investigators, however, claim that they have sound evidence against the accused. They say the two men have committed money laundering of around Rs7 billion and the FIA has recovered Rs4 billion of it.
Alleged torture
The court heard another application moved on behalf of co-accused Abdul Ghani Majeed claiming that he was severely tortured by the investigators. His attorney Farooq H Naek said his client was beaten up and also deprived of sleep. Naek said he is not requesting the court to influence the investigation, but it is the duty of the court to restrain the interrogators from torturing a person during the course of an investigation.
The investigating officer, Ali Abro, denied the allegations and said the accused was being kept in a comfortable environment and was also being allowed to sleep. He argued that he is being provided all the due legal facilities during his detention.
The FIA’s Hassan also denied the allegations of victimisation, adding that the accused was being interrogated fairly. Naek, however, asked the court to direct the investigators to conduct their interrogations between 8am and 7pm. The court accepted the request and issued the orders accordingly.
Protective bail
The Sindh High Court granted protective pre-arrest bail to three sons of Anwar Majeed, a close aide of former President Asif Ali Zardari, who is facing charges in the Rs35 billion money laundering case being heard by a banking court, adds Jamal Khurshid.
Khawaja Ali Majeed, Khawaja Nimar Majeed and Khawaja Mustafa Zulqarnain, who were named as co-accused in the money laundering case filed by the Federal Investigation Agency, approached the SHC on Monday for obtaining pre-arrest protective bail in the case against their father and Omni group head Anwar Majeed, former Pakistan Stock Exchange chairman Hussain Lawai, Zardari, his sister Faryal Talpur and other influential businessmen.
Anwar Majeed and his son Abdul Ghani Majeed were arrested by the FIA in Islamabad last week, while other co-accused including Zardari, Talpur and others have already obtained pre-arrest bail from the Sindh and Islamabad High Courts following the submission of interim charge sheet before the banking court by the FIA.
Arguing in favour of the three brothers’ plea at the SHC on Monday, their lawyer Farooq H Naek submitted that his clients had nothing to do with offence and were willing to cooperate with the investigation. However, he said, they were apprehensive of being arrested by the FIA and were therefore seeking protective bail.
Naek further said that other co-accused Shahzad Jatoi, Zardari and Faryal Talpur had already been granted protective bail by the court.
After a preliminary hearing of the petition, the SHC division bench headed by Justice Abdul Maalik Gaddi granted pre-arrest protective bail to the petitioners for 10 days and directed them to surrender before the trial court.
The FIA has alleged in interim charge sheet that the Omni group directors were involved in the opening of bogus accounts, placement of illegitimate funds for routing of billions of rupees elsewhere and the amount was credited in the fake account of a private firm through cheques made by the co-accused involved in the scam.
