Lahore Banking Court rules that the allegations and evidence presented by the FIA warrant further investigation, rejecting pre-arrest bail for five suspects linked to alleged Rs7 billion benami bank account transactions.
LAHORE: A Banking Court in Lahore has dismissed the pre-arrest bail applications of five suspects, including the chief executive officer (CEO) of a private company, in a case involving alleged suspicious transactions worth Rs7 billion conducted through benami (proxy) bank accounts.
Banking Court Judge Mian Shehzad Raza announced the reserved verdict after hearing detailed arguments from both the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the defence.
According to the FIA, the principal accused is Sheikh Munir Hussain, owner and CEO of a private company, while his son, Dr. Amir Raza, is also among the suspects. The remaining accused include Arslan Ahmed, Abdullah Masood, and Maqsood Ahmed, who allegedly held the benami accounts used in the transactions.
Assistant Director Rana Uzair, representing the FIA, argued that the suspects fraudulently opened and operated benami bank accounts using forged signatures to facilitate tax evasion and suspected money laundering. Investigators told the court that individuals in whose names the accounts were opened denied owning or operating them.
The prosecution further alleged that the accused acted in collusion with bank officials to establish the fraudulent accounts. It also informed the court that the Lahore High Court had previously dismissed the pre-arrest bail plea of another accused, Mazhar, in the same case.
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