Court extends Faryal Talpur’s interim bail till Sept 4 in Rs35bn scam

KARACHI: A banking court on Thursday extended the interim bail granted to Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Faryal Talpur in the Rs 35 billion money laundering scam till September 4.

Faryal reportedly appeared before the court with her lawyer; however, the hearing was adjourned on the request of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officials owing to the absence of the investigation officer. Following this, the judge adjourned the hearing of the case till September 4, but will hear the bail pleas of two accused on August 18.

Earlier on Wednesday, the FIA took former president Asif Zardari’s close aide and Omni Group Chairman Anwar Majeed into custody outside the Supreme Court, where he and his family had appeared after repeated absences from hearings of the same case.

Majeed and his family had been summoned to court on Aug 13, for the previous hearing of the case, but had not appeared before the three-judge bench led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar.

The CJP had then rejected the Majeed family’s notice of absence, contemplated charging them with contempt of court, and summoned them to appear in court at the earliest.

On Monday, the DG FIA had informed the court that officials had found 15 more accounts of A-One International, from which Rs6 billion had been transacted.

He had said that an account was opened in the name of a person, who worked as a graphics designer with a private TV channel, and Rs800 million were transacted from this account. Another fake account was opened in the name of a Lahore woman, from which Rs1.5 billion were remitted.

The official had said that he could say for sure that bribe money was deposited in these accounts.

Hamid had, however, said that there was no mention of bribery or corruption in the JIT report and all finances of Omni Group were legal, which was also audited.

The FIA is investigating 32 people in relation to money laundering from fictitious accounts, including Asif Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur. Zardari’s close aide Hussain Lawai was arrested last month in connection with the probe.

Over 20 ‘benami’ accounts at some private banks were opened in 2013, 2014 and 2015 from where transactions worth billions of rupees were made, according to reports. The amount, according to reports, is said to be black money gathered from various kickbacks, commissions and bribes.