An accountability court hearing fake bank accounts case Saturday remanded former President Asif Ali Zardari's sister Faryal Talpur into the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) custody till June 24. The NAB team produced Talpur before accountability court Judge Muhammad Arshad Malik amid tight security arrangements and sought her 14-day physical remand. The court after hearing the arguments of Deputy Prosecutor General NAB Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi and Defence Counsel Farooq H Naek granted the NAB nine-day physical remand of Talpur.
The NAB arrested Talpur on June 14 from the Zardari House, which was notified as a sub-jail by the NAB chairman for the purpose of detention of the accused under the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), 1999. While arguing before the court, Abbasi said accused Talpur has been specially nominated in the reference No II which has been transferred from a special court of Karachi to this court.
He said investigations conducted so far prima facia established Talpur's involvement in the commission of offences punishable under the NAO 1999. Abbasi told the court that accused is one of the directors as well as shareholders of M/s Zardari Group Pvt Ltd. She is also the signatory of accounts of Zardari wherein the huge amount was deposited from fake accounts. She is also a beneficiary of fake bank accounts scandal, he argued.
He said the accused being director of M/s Zardari Group received Rs 15 million from the fake account of A-One International. The accused has also received Rs 15 million from another fake account of Umair Associates, he argued. The prosecution further argued that the accused being signatory of the accounts of Zardari Group had transferred Rs 30 million in the account of Owais Muzaffar from where the amount was withdrawn as cash to break the trail of transactions.
He said M/s Zardari Group during the directorship/management of the accused has also involved itself into various other transactions linking her company account with fake accounts and this establishes the nexus of illegal proceeds with her company. The NAB prosecutor said the accused in collusion with other benamidar, employees and associates deposited illegal gains procured by way of commission and kickbacks from the fraudulent projects, fraudulent loans and illegal suspicious transactions for laundering purposes, rerouting and reinvestment. The accused abetted, assisted and connived with other accused persons to misappropriate various amounts through associate, benamidars and front men for replacing and integrating the ill-gotten money to whiten the same by way of fraudulent transactions routed through fake accounts.
He said ground of arrest had been served on the accused at the time of arrest and she had signed it. There are good and sufficient grounds for remanding the accused to complete the investigation and to confront the accused with the documentary evidence collected by the investigation officer. He requested the court to grant 14-day physical remand of the accused.
The judge asked if the accused is a public officeholder. On this Naek replied that Talpur is a member of provincial assembly of Sindh and remained an MNA and mayor.
Abbasi told the court that 10 officials and officers including two female officers have been deputed at the Zardari House, which has been notified as sub-jail. While arguing before the court, Naek said Talpur has been arrested by the NAB and she is under house arrest. He requested the court to direct the NAB for taking permission from this court for investigating the accused.
The judge also inquired about the provision of copies of reference to the accused. The NAB prosecutor told the court that the copies of the reference have been submitted with the registrar office and scrutiny of the copies of reference has been started. While talking to the media informally, Faryal Talpur said everyone knows these are political arrests.
Comments
Comments are closed.