- JIT Head says Sindh government seems reluctant to cooperate with the team
- Fake accounts scam involved over Rs 100 billion: JIT
ISLAMABAD, October 22: The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) formed to probe alleged mega laundering through fake bank accounts informed the Supreme Court on Monday that the scam involved over Rs100 billion.
The JIT submitted its second report on the case to the apex court, in which it revealed that what started as fictitious bank accounts evolved into an extremely complicated scam of money laundering crossing Rs100 billion.
An FIA JIT had been investigating a 2015 case regarding fake accounts and fictitious transactions conducted through ‘benami’ accounts in Summit Bank, Sindh Bank and UBL.
Seven individuals, including PPP Co-Chairman Asif Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur, were said to be involved in using those accounts for suspicious transactions. The accounts were allegedly used to channel funds received through kickbacks. While hearing a suo moto case regarding a delay in the FIA probe into the case, the SC had constituted a JIT to probe into the matter.
JIT head Ahsan Sadiq in his today’s report said that several bank accounts used in suspicious transactions were opened for a brief period of time and were closed after transfer of money.
Sadiq told the court that the Sindh government appeared reluctant to cooperate with the team.
The report said the Sindh chief secretary, irrigation secretary and agriculture secretary had not cooperated with the JIT, to which Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar said that the court would “summon all (these officials) by the evening”.
The provincial government’s counsel, however, told the court that the Sindh government had been cooperating with the JIT.
The JIT head assured the court that the team would identify the beneficiaries of the transactions.
He said that the team had found during its investigations that transactions were made through the fake accounts of rickshaw drivers and falooda vendors. As many as 36 companies associated with the Omni Group had been uncovered in the case.
The chief justice summoned the Sindh police chief in the next hearing on Oct 26 in Karachi.-Agencies
