A district and sessions judge on Monday turned down the Federal Investigation Agency’s plea for a 15-day extension in investigation of the National Insurance Corporation Limited (NICL) scam. Judge Mujahid Mustaqeem directed the agency to be prepared to argue against Moonis Elahi’s acquittal plea on the next hearing on October 3 in case it failed to submit a complete challan by then.
The judge, however, accepted FIA Additional Director Zafar Qureshi’s plea for exemption from personal appearance on Monday on account of ‘several death threats’.
The judge had directed Qureshi at the previous hearing to appear September 26 to explain his reasons for not submitting a complete challan.
Elahi’s counsel, Advocate Rai Bashir and Advocate Amjad Parvez, earlier took strong exception to the request for extension in the investigation period. They said the FIA had no evidence against their client and was only trying to prolong his detention. They said no new evidence had been produced by the FIA in the revised interim challan it submitted at the pervious hearing.
Elahi’s counsel criticised Qureshi’s absence and described the alleged death threats as an excuse to avoid the court because of his failure to come up with any evidence against their client. They said the threats had not prevented the FIA additional director from appearing before the Supreme Court or attending office.
In the revised challan submitted at the previous hearing, the FIA had replaced three prosecution witnesses. The new witnesses are Ehtisham Sadiq, Irfan Basra and Muttiur Rehman.
Deputy Director Javed Hussain Shah was added as a witness.
Elahi is accused of opening bogus bank accounts in the name of his wife and manager Muhammad Malick.
The two FIRs in the case allege that Elahi withdrew money from the bank accounts his manager Malick had opened at Allied Bank Limited’s New Airport and Dubai Islamic Bank’s Main Boulevard branches. Malick had reportedly stated during investigation that he had opened the accounts on Elahi’s instructions. He had later retracted the statement. Mohsin Warraich had allegedly deposited Rs320 million and Rs220 million in the first account and Rs100 million in second account.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 27th, 2011.
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