KARACHI: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Saturday registered a case against the director general of the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) for sending money abroad through illegal channels hours before he was granted bail in a case pertaining to falsifying facts to obtain a passport , an official said.

“The fresh case against Mr Abbas was registered by the State Bank circle of the FIA,” he said. “A new FIR has been registered under Sections 5/8 and 22/23 of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1947 for sending money abroad through illegal channels. The new case was registered in the light of findings which emerged during the course of a probe of the last case — lodged with the agency for falsifying facts to obtain a passport.”

Mr Abbas was arrested by the FIA only last week for concealing his government job and falsifying facts to obtain a passport — a charge, if proved, could land him up to three years in prison. An inquiry against Mr Abbas was initiated last year and despite the fact that the FIA came to know about the alleged crime it did not lodge an FIR against him owing to “unknown reasons”. The said inquiry was formally last week turned into an FIR that led to Mr Abbas’s arrest at his residence.

After a weeklong interrogation, Mr Abbas was due to receive his bail orders from a judicial magistrate but a fresh case was registered against the KDA chief suggesting aggressive approach of the federal agency to probe different allegations being faced by the senior government official.

“The FIA arrested him for concealing facts to get passports,” said the official. “He acquired his passport showing himself as a businessman but after more than a year in December 2016 he applied for reprint of the same passport declaring himself a government servant. But during the course of investigation a few new facts emerged. Mr Abbas has confessed to having committed several illegalities using his official power as the KDA chief, including having sent money abroad through illegal channels, that led to the registration of the new case.”

Earlier in the day, the judicial magistrate granted bail to Mr Abbas in the case pertaining to falsifying facts to obtain a passport. The KDA chief, who was remanded to prison, through his lawyer moved a bail application and after hearing arguments from both sides, a judicial magistrate (south) granted him bail against a surety bond of Rs100,000.

In the passport case, Mr Abbas was booked under Section 6 (1) (a) (c) of the Passport Act, 1974.

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2017