Key accused in fake accounts case held

rawalpindi — One of the key suspects in the fake bank accounts case has been arrested by Interpol on the request of the Federal Investigation Agency after he arrived in Jeddah from London, reports online.

According to sources, the FIA has taken the arrest of Aslam Masood as a breakthrough and started preparing documents related to the case to bring him back to Pakistan.

Aslam Masood, who has already been booked by the FIA’s Karachi branch in the fake accounts case, is believed to have been involved in the opening of fake accounts in various banks in the names of different persons, whose copies of Computerised National Identity Cards had been used without their consent and knowledge.

The fake accounts were opened in connivance with senior bankers and illegitimate funds (worth billions) were deposited in these accounts by the associates of Aslam Masood and then transferred to other accounts for the purpose of money laundering. The FIA said Aslam Masood was among those nominated in the case. Some senior bankers and employers of Masood have already been arrested but he had been absconding since leaving the country on January 9.

The special court of Sindh at Karachi had twice issued nonbailable warrants of Masood and his accomplices namely Mohammed Arif Khan and Mohammed Umair, who had also fled the country.

Masood, the chief financial officer of the Omni Group, was finally arrested by Interpol when he arrived in Jeddah from London.

A senior official of the FIA told Dawn that the agency would constitute a team which would proceed to Saudi Arabia along with Masood’s case file to bring him back to Pakistan to face trial. The FIA has been investigating several people in connection with the fake accounts case, including former president Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur.