Elahi family not cooperating in probe, FIA tells LHC

Reiterates claim that former CM’s relative involved in money laundering

LAHORE:

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has claimed that three family members of former Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi are not cooperating with it in an investigation related to transfer of millions of rupees to their bank accounts by a peon—naib qasid—at the Punjab Assembly.

The FIA said this in a report submitted to the Lahore High Court (LHC) in response to a plea filed by Parvez’s son Rasikh Ellahi and his daughters-in-laws Tahreem Ellahi and Zahra Ellahi, requesting the court to quash a first information report (FIR) registered against them under money laundering charges.

The report said  the Punjab Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) on January 24 registered a criminal case against one Qaisar Iqbal Bhatti, a peon at the Punjab Assembly.

It also sent a referral letter along with a copy of the FIR and related material to the FIA to initiate a money laundering investigation under the relevant provisions of the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2010.

“This office [FIA] was communicated that the alleged Qaiser Iqbal Bhatti was a low-wage employee of the Punjab Assembly (naib qasid) who has been involved in corrupt practices and accumulated assets beyond his known source of income.”

It said the ACE reported that Bhatti had routed his crime proceeds through his bank accounts for the purpose of money laundering. The FIA also provided details of Bhatti’s inexplicable banking transactions to different individuals including the petitioners.

It said the FIA later registered an FIR under money laundering charges against the petitioners. The accused petitioners are on ad interim bails in this case.

Read ‘PML-Q’s door closed on Elahi’

The report revealed that the FIA also initiated another inquiry against Bhatti on a report of suspicious transactions detected by the Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU).

Later it transpired that Bhatti transferred Rs175 million through his bank account to various people.

The record of the bank accounts further revealed that Bhatti had Rs811 million and 4,000 euros in his different bank accounts. He transferred to and received a total of Rs93 million from Rasikh Ellahi; sent Rs5 million to Zahra Ellahi and received Rs33.4 million from Tahreem Ellahi.

The FIA later served self-explanatory call-up notices on the petitioners asking them to appear before an inquiry officer along with the requisite record.

It said the petitioners failed to appear before the inquiry officer. Second call-up notices were issued but they still did not appear. It said they did submit a reply but it was incomplete and did not give any explanation regarding the queries put to them through written notices.

The FIA said in the reply sent to the inquiry officer, the petitioners gave different versions.

“One petitioner admitted receiving the aforesaid amount in their bank accounts and took the plea that said amount was received as consideration for the shares they held in M/s Argo Tractor Pvt. Ltd.

“Their stance was belied by the fact that the said company had been defunct since 2014 whereas the petitioner had received the said amount in 2020.

“They failed to answer [the question about] the legitimate [reason] of the transaction with a low-profile individual who has no relationship with them. While another petitioner claimed the said transactions with Bhatti were against the purchase of land which could not mature but without any proof,” it said.

The FIA requested the court to dismiss the petitioners’ plea.