KARACHI: A businessman facing money laundering investigations both in Pakistan and the United States died under mysterious circumstances here on Sunday.

Police said that Javed Khanani, a director of the foreign exchange firm Khanani and Kalia International, fell from the eighth floor of his under-construction building in Muhammad Ali Society and died. He was associated with other businesses as well.

In a statement, SSP Faisal Abdullah said that Mr Khanani was on a routine visit to the building. He was alone at its eighth floor, from where he fell, and got entangled in electricity wires before hitting the ground.

One of his business partners took him to the nearby Liaquat National Hospital (LNH), where doctors pronounced him dead.

An LNH spokesman, Anjum Rizvi, said that Mr Khanani was brought dead to the hospital at around 1.40pm, and within minutes the businessman’s relatives took away his body.

Police said the family members of the deceased did not allow them to complete the required medico-legal formalities.

A few labourers working at the under-construction building were taken into custody for questioning, they said, adding that they found no eyewitness or CCTV footage.

“We are investigating the matter from three angles,” said SP Dr Fahad Ahmed.

“It may be an accident, a suicide or some foul play.”

Another police official told Dawn that Mr Khanani was under severe mental stress as he was facing money laundering investigations.

“It appears to be a case of suicide,” he said. But at the same time he refused to rule out murder.

In 2008, Mr Khanani and his partner Munaf Kalia were arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency for their alleged involvement in money laundering through their forex company.

In September this year, his brother Altaf Khanani was arrested. Later on Altaf pleaded guilty to a money laundering charge before a US court.

In October, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Javed Khanani, Obaid Khanani, Hozaifa Khanani and Atif Polani for being associated with Altaf’s money laundering organisation, which it earlier designated as a Transnational Criminal Organi­sation that laundered illicit funds for organised crime groups, drug trafficking organisations, and designated terrorist groups across the world.

Published in Dawn, December 5th, 2016