Customs officer’s murder: Ayyan denies having any role

Claims before JIT that Inspector Ejaz Chaudhry was not a witness against her in currency smuggling case

RAWALPINDI: Fashion model Ayyan Ali, who is under trial in a money laundering case, told a joint investigation team (JIT) on Monday that she had no ties to the murder of a Customs inspector.

Ayyan, along with her lawyer Khurram Latif Khosa, appeared before Inspector Tahir Malik, a member of the JIT. The team is investigating the murder of Inspector Ejaz Chaudhry who was shot dead outside his Rawalpindi home on June 2, 2015.

In a written statement that she submitted to the team, the model said she was imprisoned at the time of the murder.



“I was in jail when the inspector was shot dead on June 2, 2015,” Ayyan said. She further asserted that it was wrong to say the inspector was a prosecution witness against her in the currency smuggling case.

Ayyan was caught in March last year at the Islamabad airport with over $500,000 in cash in her luggage.

Currently on bail, the model claimed that she has been wrongly accused in the murder and that the police needed to give her a clean chit.

Saima Bibi, wife of Inspector Chaudhry, had accused Ayyan for the murder of her husband about a year after the incident.

Earlier in the day, the model appeared in an anti-terrorism court (ATC) and asked for recording her statement before the JIT investigating the murder case.

Special Judge ATC-II, after hearing arguments from Ayyan’s lawyer regarding terrorism charges against her, summoned Inspector Malik to the court.

The court asked him why the police had not submitted initial investigation reports of the case in the court since the terrorism charges were added on August 11. The court directed the JIT member to record Ayyan’s statement and submit his investigation report in the court on September 23.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 20^th, 2016.