Court extends remand of Axact bosses
The remand was granted after the FIA sought more time to interrogate the company’s executives
PHOTO: INP
KARACHI:
A district and sessions court on Thursday extended by three more days the remand of nine Axact executives, including the company’s CEO and founding chairperson Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh, over their involvement in a massive diploma mills scam.
The remand was granted after the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) sought more time to interrogate the company’s executives.
An investigating team, headed by Saeed Ahmed Khan, FIA corporate crime circle assistant director, presented the nine men – Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh, Viqas Atique, Zeeshan Anwar, Zeeshan Ahmed, Muhammad Sabir, Muhammad Rizwan, Imran Ahmed Khan, Atif Hussain, Adnan Saboor - before the South district judicial magistrate Noor Muhammad Kalmati.
At the second hearing of the case, the team submitted that progress had been made during their investigations so far as new revelations were coming to the surface.
The FIA team said some of the seized documents also contained signatures of some high-level foreign personalities. But the document did not name any.
As the hearing began on Thursday, the judge, like the previous hearing, asked the accused if they had any complaint of mistreatment at the hands of the investigators. They all replied in the negative.
However, Shoaib and Viqas complained that they wanted to be treated at the privately-owned Aga Khan Hospital and not in any public health facility.
The judge, in return, directed the investigation officer (IO) of the case to provide medical treatment to them at the Aga Khan Hospital and submit a report of their treatment at the next hearing on June 8. The other accused were also allowed to access medical facility.
Earlier lawyers of the accused, including Karachi Bar Association President Naeem Qureshi, Shaukat Hayat and others, opposed the prosecution’s plea for extending the remand of the suspects.
“Enough recovery has been made from the accused and the FIA has not given any concrete reason for extension in remand of the accused,” argued Qureshi, adding that the accused had already recorded their statements.
According to a court document, the defence side claimed that the FIA, using ulterior motives, wanted to harass the accused and compel them to admit to crimes that they had not committed.
They pleaded before the judge to call an investigation report under Section 173 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and send the suspects to jail on judicial remand. The prosecution, on the other hand, contended that if the suspects’ custody on physical remand was not given then the investigation would suffer ‘badly’.
After the concluding of the arguments, the judge gave an order in which he observed that the investigation had made some progress during the course of the first remand. “Since the investigation has not yet been completed and to conclude it as per the IO’s demand, the accused have been remanded till June 7.”
The judge asked the IO to present a daily progress report at the next hearing.
The case against the Axact’s top management on allegations of running an international education scam, production of fake and fictitious degrees and fraudulently laundering and depositing money in different banks has been registered under sections 420, 468, 471, 472, 473, 474, 477-A, 109, 34 of the Pakistan Penal code read with Section 36, 37 of the Electronic Transaction Ordinance and Section 3 and 4 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 5th, 2015.
A district and sessions court on Thursday extended by three more days the remand of nine Axact executives, including the company’s CEO and founding chairperson Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh, over their involvement in a massive diploma mills scam.
The remand was granted after the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) sought more time to interrogate the company’s executives.
An investigating team, headed by Saeed Ahmed Khan, FIA corporate crime circle assistant director, presented the nine men – Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh, Viqas Atique, Zeeshan Anwar, Zeeshan Ahmed, Muhammad Sabir, Muhammad Rizwan, Imran Ahmed Khan, Atif Hussain, Adnan Saboor - before the South district judicial magistrate Noor Muhammad Kalmati.
At the second hearing of the case, the team submitted that progress had been made during their investigations so far as new revelations were coming to the surface.
The FIA team said some of the seized documents also contained signatures of some high-level foreign personalities. But the document did not name any.
As the hearing began on Thursday, the judge, like the previous hearing, asked the accused if they had any complaint of mistreatment at the hands of the investigators. They all replied in the negative.
However, Shoaib and Viqas complained that they wanted to be treated at the privately-owned Aga Khan Hospital and not in any public health facility.
The judge, in return, directed the investigation officer (IO) of the case to provide medical treatment to them at the Aga Khan Hospital and submit a report of their treatment at the next hearing on June 8. The other accused were also allowed to access medical facility.
Earlier lawyers of the accused, including Karachi Bar Association President Naeem Qureshi, Shaukat Hayat and others, opposed the prosecution’s plea for extending the remand of the suspects.
“Enough recovery has been made from the accused and the FIA has not given any concrete reason for extension in remand of the accused,” argued Qureshi, adding that the accused had already recorded their statements.
According to a court document, the defence side claimed that the FIA, using ulterior motives, wanted to harass the accused and compel them to admit to crimes that they had not committed.
They pleaded before the judge to call an investigation report under Section 173 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and send the suspects to jail on judicial remand. The prosecution, on the other hand, contended that if the suspects’ custody on physical remand was not given then the investigation would suffer ‘badly’.
After the concluding of the arguments, the judge gave an order in which he observed that the investigation had made some progress during the course of the first remand. “Since the investigation has not yet been completed and to conclude it as per the IO’s demand, the accused have been remanded till June 7.”
The judge asked the IO to present a daily progress report at the next hearing.
The case against the Axact’s top management on allegations of running an international education scam, production of fake and fictitious degrees and fraudulently laundering and depositing money in different banks has been registered under sections 420, 468, 471, 472, 473, 474, 477-A, 109, 34 of the Pakistan Penal code read with Section 36, 37 of the Electronic Transaction Ordinance and Section 3 and 4 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 5th, 2015.