Moonis Elahi granted protective bail by SHC

Elahi's lawyer says Moonis is currently not in the country, but will return in a few days.

KARACHI: Moonis Elahi, one of the accused in the National Insurance Corporation Limited (NICL) scam has been granted a three week protective bail by the Sindh Hight Court.

The Banking Court of Lahore had earlier issued a non Bailable arrest warrant for Elahi and had ordered the investigation team to take him into custody and present him in court. Moonis's lawyer had submitted an appeal of protective bail to the divisional bench of the Sindh High Court. He added that Moonis is currently not in the country, but will return in a few days.

The Sindh High Court Bench accepted the appeal and has granted a protective bail of Rs700,000.

Earlier this month, Mohsin Warraich, the main accused in the NICL scam, claims that Moonis Elahi has no part in the scandal.

This was stated in an affidavit from Mohsin Warraich, a copy of which was recieved by Express 24/7.

The two politicians’ sons were allegedly involved in the Rs2.75 billion NICL fraud case. They, along with several others, have been accused of using political influence to sell land to the state-owned insurance company that they did not own. They allegedly used a shell company – Privilege Farms (Pvt) Ltd – and fake legal opinions to hide the true ownership of the land being sold.

British authorities, acting on a request from Interpol and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), have frozen the accounts of a UK-based company owned by Moonis Elahi.