All Khanani & Kalia International employees declared innocent in laundering case
KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday acquitted all employees allegedly involved in Khanani and Kalia International money laundering case.
A single bench of the SHC announced the ruling. KKI was Pakistan’s largest foreign exchange company until November 2008, before it was shut down in Pakistan Forex Scam Case.
Those vindicated include Abdul Aziz Polani, Altaf Khanani, Zakeera Javed Qasim, Hanif Kalia, Munaf Kalia, Javed Khanani, and Atif Polani. The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had accused the suspects of laundering 550 million rupees to foreign countries, while the Pakistan Peoples Party was in power in the centre.
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The hearing in the case was first held in 2011. Over 42 witnesses recorded their statements against the probe agency, while 58 witnesses did not show up in the court.
Javed Khanani and Munaf Kalia, the directors of Khanani and Kalia International, were arrested by the FIA in 2008 on charges of illegal transfer of money. They were also accused of running an illegal hawala/hundi business. Cases were filed by the FIA against them in Karachi, Lahore, and Abbottabad.
By 2011, all the suspects were declared innocent in all case, except one.
The FIA once again charged Javed Khanani in 2015 in a fresh money laundering case. He was taken detained briefly and then released on bail. In 2016, he allegedly committed suicide by jumping off the eighth floor of an under-construction building in Karachi.
