The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has challenged a special banking court verdict to acquit eight men in the now infamous money laundering Khanani and Kalia case. An appeal on behalf of the FIA was filed on Thursday in the Sindh High Court (SHC) by Deputy Attorney General Ashiq Raza, with the plea citing lacunas in the banking court verdict and praying to the SHC to suspend the decision.
The directors of Khanani and Kalia – Hanif Kalia, Abdul Munaf Kalia, Javed Khanani and Aatif Polani – as well as bankers Masood Abbas, Wajahat Ali, Arif Rehman and Tasleem Ahmed, had been charged of laundering more than 100 billion rupees in a case lodged on November 15, 2008 by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) regarding illegal transfer of money abroad. The FIA had registered the case after initiating an inquiry.
The matter was taken up by a special banking court headed by Mir Muhammad Sheikh. At the time, the prosecution had argued that besides the two official websites, the forex dealers` firm had fraudulently created a website and databases “Exchange Plus” and “Foxpro” without declaring it to the SBP and used them for illegal transactions. The company had also installed a huge computer system at its head office in Saima Trade Tower, I.I. Chundrigar Road, to enable the company’s franchises across the country to access and facilitate such transactions. Hundreds of thousands of such accounts in different banks were opened across the country this way, the prosecution contended.
The accused, in connivance with other directors and partners of exchange companies and money changers, had used the services of Al-Zarooni Exchange in the UAE, the prosecution further argued, with Atif Aziz Polani and Jawed Qasim acting as the focal persons to assist all such dealings.
Despite such extensive deliberations, the banking court acquitted the eight men on on March 4, 2011, with the verdict stating that the prosecution failed to prove its case and that no proof was found against the accused.
It is pertinent to mention here that after the special court exonerated the eight men, the then FIA director general severely slated the verdict. The Supreme Court (SC) subsequently took up the matter, and appointed Justice Sajjad Ali Shah to probe the issue. Justice Shah then conducted an inquiry and sent his report back to the SC.
