‘Money laundering’ case: Supermodel Ayyan’s judicial remand extended

Customs ordered to complete inquiry, submit charge-sheet in court on the 24th

RAWALPINDI: Supermodel Ayyan’s judicial remand was extended on Saturday in the ‘money laundering’ case after the customs’ investigation team failed to submit the charge-sheet in court.

A member of the investigation team, Yousaf Mughal, complained to Judge Mumtaz Hussain about the jail officials’ lack of cooperation with them.

Mughal said notices were issued to defence witnesses but some of them had yet to appear before the investigation team. He appealed for more time to complete all the formalities, following which the judge directed the team to complete its investigation and submit a full challan in court on April 24. When Ayyan informed the court that she wanted to call another witness, the judge directed the investigation team to record the statement of the new witness and present it in the next hearing.

No cooperation

A senior official of the Pakistan Customs told The Express Tribune that some witnesses are hesitant to appear before the joint investigation team (JIT).

Regarding jail officials’ non-cooperation, he said they keep members of the JIT waiting for hours whenever they visit the suspect for interrogation.

He said documents provided by Ayyan had been verified by the property dealer and the middleman but there is still a lot of work to do to confirm its legality.

Life in jail

In the previous hearing Ayyan had donned a head-to-toe burqa, but she opted to go without it on Saturday.

A large number of lawyers, litigants and journalists were waiting outside the customs court after they learnt that Ayyan would appear before the judge.

When the journalists again asked the supermodel about her life in jail, she said she would produce a film on how inmates in the Adiala Jail are treated and how they spend their time in there.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 12^th, 2015.