FIA unearths Hawala, Hundi network

The Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) State Bank Circle (SBC) has claimed to have unearth the illegal business of Hawala/Hundi and seized illegal contrabands worth millions of rupees.

The spokesman for the FIA Sindh said on Wednesday that, during the course of inquiry, it had been substantiated that alleged person Abdul Wasay and his fellows having office at Yousuf Plaza, 2nd floor, MA Jinnah Road, Karachi, were maintaining various banks accounts executing huge credit and debit transactions, which were not commensurate with their profiles, not inline and abnormal, and that they were involved in illegal activity such as Hundi and Hawala and smuggling.

The suspects also indulged in sending the cost of secondhand vehicles in Japan through a Hawala and Hundi operating showroom on Khalid bin Waleed Road, Karachi. Hence, after the approval of the competent authority, the deputy director of the FIA SBC, Bilal Aslam Khan, constituted a raiding party who conducted a search of both premises of the alleged persons and found a lot of incriminating material.

Seized material

The seized goods included cheque books of different banks accounts, utilised deposit vouchers of different banks through which billions of rupees were deposited in the accounts of the alleged persons, books of payments to different individuals, bills of ladings pertaining to booked goods for Afghanistan, invoices related to purchasing Chinese cigarettes from the UAE by Abdul Wasay and booked for Afghanistan so that they smuggled cigarettes into Pakistan, one letter addressed to the general manager, a Thar Dry Port Jodhpur (India) document duly signed by Usman Ibrahim, many chits for payments of Hawala payments, cellphones and laptops having data of incriminating activities of alleged persons, documents in respect of import of secondhand vehicles from Japan and other material, four vehicles worth 12 crores, cash amounting to Rs3 crore and 34 crores lying in different bank accounts.