Lahore court declares Moonis Elahi absconder in money laundering case

LAHORE, July 22 (SABAH): Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader and former federal minister Chaudhry Moonis Elahi was declared an absconder in the money laundering case by a Lahore court on Saturday.

Following the court order, the process of freezing Moonis Elahi’s identity card, passport, bank accounts and properties had also been initiated. The court asked to be provided with the former federal minister’s travel information, bank account, passport and identity card details, as well as his correct residential address.

The former PML-Q leader is facing two cases of money laundering. He has been accused of illegally taking billions of rupees out of the country.

The Anti-corruption circle Punjab has also filed a case against four suspects including Elahi and submitted the challan to the court.

Last year, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) registered a money laundering case against Elahi and others in a case pertaining to his alleged involvement in a scam to the tune of Rs720 million.

The investigation agency also arrested two of Elahi’s close associates – Nawaz Bhatti and Mazhar Iqbal – on the charges that the two men used to facilitate the PML-Q leader to embezzle money.

According to the FIA’s first information report, the case against Elahi was registered on June 11 under Sections 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of a common intention), 109 (punishment for abetment), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (using a genuine forged document) of the Pakistan Penal Code, read with Section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947 and Section 4 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2010.