November 11, 2008	Tuesday	Ziqa'ad 12, 1429

LAHORE / KARACHI, Nov 10: Another prime suspect in the foreign currency scam was handed over on Monday to the Lahore wing of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) which obtained a four-day physical remand of other three accused.

The FIA presented Javed Khanani, a director of Khanani and Kalia International, and two employees of its Gujranwala franchise, Rustam Ali Khan and Tariq Mahmood, before Judicial Magistrate Faisal Jamil and sought their remand for 14 days. The court granted only four-day remand.

Sources said FIA personnel in Lahore gave Mr Khanani ‘due protocol’ and did not ‘disturb’ him for interrogation. He was given anti-stress pills and he was sleeping in the Temple Road lock-up of the agency, “because the process of presenting him before a court had got on to his nerves,” they said. No-one was allowed to see him.

FIA officials remained tight-lipped about the outcome of the investigation carried out so far.

The agency was also reluctant to divulge the contents of the FIR registered under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act and the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Ordinance. “Since it is a high-profile case, the FIR cannot be provided to the media,” Deputy Director Bisharat Shahzad told Dawn. “No one is allowed to meet the accused.”

FIA’s chief in Lahore, Azam Joya, refused to see newsmen in his office.

The Sindh home department accepted a request of the Punjab government and handed over another accused, Munaf Khan Kalia, to the FIA, Lahore.

Munaf Kalia told newsmen at the Karachi airport that he was not involved in any illegal practice. He said he would be in a position to present the ‘real picture’ after securing bail. He said he had been advised against travelling on health grounds but he was being made to fly to Lahore.

An FIA team shifted him to an unspecified place after he arrived in Lahore. He will be presented before a lower court on Tuesday.

The directors of the Khanani and Kalia International, which has about 40 per cent share in the country’s foreign exchange business, have been accused of physically transferring foreign currency abroad, besides running ‘Hawala or Hundi’ transactions in violation of the State Bank’s directives. The company has 24 branches and nine franchises.

“The magnitude of the scam will be made public once the investigation is complete,” an official said, adding that a computer confiscated from the accused contained data that could lead to the people who had illegally transferred foreign exchange abroad.

The FIA, meanwhile, has asked the immigration wings at all airports to collect data through the Personal Identification Secure Comparison Evaluation System (Pisces) of people who had frequently travelled abroad between March and October this year. “This is being done to check cases of transfer of foreign currency,” an official said.

Most money-changers in Lahore remained open. The dollar-rupee parity difference between the inter-bank and open markets dropped to around Re1.

The FIA arrested Munaf Kalia on the night of Nov 7 in Karachi.

He moved an application through his counsel stating that he had recently undergone a surgery and was feeling unwell. He pleaded for immediate medical check-up and treatment. The judge ordered FIA officials to provide him necessary treatment.

Investigators claimed that during initial interrogations Munaf Kalia had disclosed some information regarding his involvement in Hawala business.