Daily Times

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Friday confiscated Rs420 million in cash and arrested three suspects in Karachi as part of its crackdown against hundi and hawala dealers.

FIA Director Sultan Khawaja held a press conference where he said that FIA Sindh raided two centres of hundi and hawala activities, seizing hundreds of millions and detaining a trio of suspects, who were identified as Mohammad Rizwan, Kamran and Imran.

“Another major exchange company, similar to Khanani and Kalia International (KKI), is operating out of Dubai,” the FIA official said, adding that the owner of the said company goes by his alias ‘Rangila’.

It is pertinent to mention here that the now-defunct KKI was one of the largest and most sophisticated exchange companies in Pakistan. It infamously ran a parallel money transfer system for purposes of transferring money out of the country through illegal hundi/hawala channels. Khawaja further said that “the illegal outflow of money from the country can be stopped by centralising the money trail.”

In continuation of crackdown on illegal transactions, the federal Investigation Agency on Friday raided offices of different currency exchanges and arrested their owners, a private channel reported.

FIA seals three currency exchanges in Gujranwala

During the raids, FIA sealed three currency exchanges and arrested the owners.

According to FIA, the raiding team recovered $21,000, foreign currency worth Rs 9.4 million and Pakistani currency worth Rs 3.9 million. The FIA said the suspects were involved in the illegal business of hawala and hundi for some months.

Earlier in the day, the FIA team had arrested three suspects allegedly involved in Hawala and Hundi business and recovered dollars worth Rs420 million in Karachi. The dollars were recovered during a raid at a private firm in Kharadar area of the city. The captured suspects include Imran, Kamran and Rizwan, said the FIA officials.

Director FIA Sindh Sultan Khawaja said money was sent abroad through Hawala and Hundi. “A case has been lodged under Section 33 and 489 against the suspects,” he said. On April 11, the FIA had arrested a man from city’s Saddar area over his suspected involvement in transactions through illegal ‘Hawala and Hundi’ business. Identified as Muhammad Khalid, the accused worked for a private trade company. The FIA had raided his office in Saddar’s Kohinoor market and found Rs 4 million cash.