HYDERABAD: A sacked police constable, Yousuf Khanzada, and his son, Arif Khanzada, a serving police constable, were on Monday produced in the Hyderabad Accountability Court, which remanded them in custody of the National Accountability Bureau for 14 days in a massive corruption case.

Yousuf is already facing a NAB reference in the accountability court in which he (along with five co-accused) is on bail. The co-accused are two officials of the Hyderabad district accounts office, one official of the Karachi treasury office, a retired district accounts officer and a sacked constable of the Sindh Reserve Police (SRP).

A NAB team had raided Yousuf’s Sadaat Colony residence in Latifabad late on Saturday evening and stayed there until dawn searching for undisclosed things. The team reportedly took away Yousuf and his son Arif but did not officially confirm their arrest.

However, a NAB press release issued on Monday said they were arrested in connection with amassing local and foreign currency worth millions of rupees and transactions amounting to billions of rupees through 10 bank accounts and 20 benami accounts.

It said that on the information provided by Yousuf, his house and business place were searched and cash, gold and unexplained documents of properties and assets worth billions of rupees were seized.

Giving details of the currency taken into custody, the NAB said the haul included over Rs3.898 million, Iranian rials 20m, Saudi riyals 745, UAE dirham 3,405, prize bonds worth Rs1.212m, gold ornaments 39.4 tolas and imitation jewellery worth around Rs202,910, besides a Rado watch.

The NAB release said that the transactions through 20 bank accounts amounted to Rs20m to Rs70m each and more through over 20 benami accounts.

Regarding the properties handled by the suspects, it said an inquiry showed that

they included a marriage hall in Latifabad valued at Rs30m, a plot in Latifabad worth Rs28m, 10 plots in Bahria Town, Hyderabad, Surjani Town etc, three shops in Boulevard Mall in Hyderabad, five flats in Bahria

Town and other schemes, six houses in Latifabad and Karachi’s Bahria Town and receipts of payments against 120 plots in Bahria Town.

Ten vehicles physically seized during the inquiry/search are worth around Rs14.3 million, it added.

An interrogation with the suspect showed that they worked as frontmen for various government officials, the NAB release said, adding that they acted as an important part of money laundering process and operated many accounts on their own and on behalf of their business associates involved in property transactions.

Meanwhile, Yousuf’s counsel Khuda Bux Leghari, has said that his client had made ‘voluntarily return’ (VR) amounting to Rs40m to Rs50m to NAB under duress.

A constitutional petition for the return of the money was pending before the Sindh High Court’s Hyderabad circuit bench, he added.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2017