Court gives 10 days to FIA to submit complete charge sheet

KARACHI: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) that had submitted an incomplete charge sheet in fake degrees scam against Axact CEO Shoaib Shaikh and eight other accused on June 13 could not file a complete charge sheet on Tuesday.
The court of Judicial Magistrate (South) Shams Khos had given 10 days to Investigation Officer (IO) Saeed Memon to submit a complete charge sheet. He now told the court that investigations were on and it was hard to file a final charge sheet in a couple of days.
He prayed to the court to grant further time. Attorneys for the accused, Naim Qureshi and Shaukat Hayyat argued that despite registration of a case some 27 days earlier, the FIA had failed to submit a final charge sheet that showed something fishy. The two attorneys prayed the court not to grant further time and treat the incomplete charge sheet as final and forward it to the sessions court concerned. The court after haring the arguments announced to reserve its ruling.
According to the incomplete charge sheet, two of nine accused including Shoaib Shaikh were produced on Saturday before Judicial Magistrate (South) Noor Muhammad. The accused, Aisha Shaikh and Farhan Kamal were absconding. Besides, it said that out of 79 witnesses, the statements of 54 witnesses have been recorded. Upon this the court ordered to record the statements of remaining witnesses without further delay.
The incomplete charge sheet said that around 2.2 million fake degrees were recovered during the investigation against the software company. It further claimed that luxurious vehicles were bought for a television channel ‘Bol’ and the accused was also involved in money laundering. It was further asserted that huge amount was received from offshore companies and was deposited in the Axact’s bank account and other people’s bank accounts. A separate money laundering case was also being lodged against the accused, the IO concluded.
The IO said around 2.2 million false educational documents were recovered in the raids at the offices of the software house and many other crimes were also committed by the accused.
He prayed the court to grant three-week time to complete the charge sheet and gather more evidence and to record the statements of the remaining witnesses. The court, however, rejected this stance and granted 10 days time to fulfil all necessary legal obligations and submit a final charge sheet.
Shoaib Shaikh’s wife Ayesha and another companion, Farhan Kamal have been declared fugitives in the interim charge sheet.
Four accused involved in the Axact fake degrees case were remanded on June 18 to the FIA for four days on physical remand and now they have been ordered to be placed at the central prison on judicial remand.
Fahad Ansari, Murad Akhtar, Adnan and Vivian produced by the FIA before the Judicial Magistrate (South) stated that as employees of Axact, they used to act as sales agents of the alleged fraud company.
In order to sell fake degrees, the accused had been using influence and even misusing the names of diplomats. The court was further informed that the detained accused had been pretending as diplomats and other influential people in order to convince the students to buy fake degrees.
The court remanded the four accused to the FIA for four days on physical remand. It may be mentioned that the court has already been sent Shoaib Shaikh and his eight accomplices to the central prison on judicial remand and now the sessions court has to decide whether Shoaib Shaikh and four of his detained accomplices cold be dispatched to Islamabad for facing more cases lodged there or not.