Javed Khanani, a director of Khanani and Kalia International (KKI) money changers, died on Sunday after reportedly falling from an under construction building in Karachi, it has been learnt.
He died after falling from an under construction building "Saima Towers" in Mohammad Ali Society, in the jurisdiction of Bahadurabad police station, senior police official said.
According to initial information, Javaid Khanai died after falling from 8th floor of the building where he had come on a routine visit, said Additional IG Karachi Mushtaq Maher. “He entangled in electric wires before hitting the ground.”
Javed Khanani’s partners were present in a nearby office, upon hearing the fall they rushed to the spot and shifted him to nearby hospital but he succumbed to his injuries on the way to hospital.
The family of the deceased immediately reached the hospital and took the body home without letting police complete any medico-legal action, said the Karachi police chief.
Police, however, has asked the family to let them complete the medico-legal formalities following which they will be able to establish the actual cause of death. "But the family has denied the police's request and are claiming that it was a suicide," Maher added.
Police has taken a few labourers into custody from the site of incident and looking for any CCTV evidence or eye witness to complete their investigation.
'Police investigating the case from three different angles'
Gulshan SP Dr. Fahad Ahmed told Dawn that police have launched investigation to ascertain the exact cause of death of Javed Khanani.
“We are investigating the death case from three different angles,” said the police officer.
He said apparently Khanani fell from the multistorey under construction building but it would be ascertained as to whether it was an "accident, suicide or some foul play".
The officer said the deceased Khanani was one of the partners of the under-construction building.
Read more: The endless case of Khanani and Kalia
Javed Khanani and Munaf Kalia were arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in a dramatic raid in November 2008 when a complaint lodged against one of their franchises in Gujranwala led to the discovery of a parallel money transfer system being operated by their company — KKI — for purposes of transferring money out of the country through illegal hundi/hawala channels.
Their arrest sparked much speculation that their company was largely responsible for the massive flight of capital that took place from Pakistan in those days, putting serious pressure on the exchange rate and prompting an emergency appeal from the government to the International Monetary Fund.
Their company reportedly carried out 40 per cent of all money exchange transactions in the country at the time, according to the FIA officials connected with the investigation quoted on record in the days after the arrest.
Multiple cases were registered against them in Karachi, Lahore and Abbottabad, for running a hundi/hawala operation, among other affiliated charges.
In January 2015, Javed Khanani was charged again by the FIA in a fresh hundi/hawala transaction discovered after all the original cases against them were finished.
He was held briefly in custody, along with his manager, before being released on bail.
Javed's brother, Altaf Khanani, pleaded guilty to money laundering charges before a United States court in November 2016 and was facing a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison plus a fine of $250,000.
Altaf Khanani was arrested in September last year following a sting operation by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and has been in jail ever since.
