Actor Nadia Hussain’s husband denied bail in bank fraud case

karachi: A sessions court on Friday dismissed the bail application of model and actor Nadia Hussain's husband in a case pertaining to alleged embezzlement of funds during his tenure as the chief executive officer of Al-Falah Securities.

Atif Muhammad Khan, who was arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency on March 8, filed an application before the court through his lawyer, seeking post-arrest bail.

Additional Sessions Judge (South) Ihsan Malik announced his order after hearing arguments from both defence and prosecution sides, dismissing the bail application.

During the hearing, the defence lawyer argued that the prosecution's case was based on malafide intentions and fabrication, as none of the penal sections invoked in the FIR were applicable to his client.

He said that the accused remained in the FIA custody for interrogation for sufficient time and that at this time he was in judicial custody and there remained no requirement for further custodial interrogation. Therefore, he added, no useful purpose would be served if Atif was kept in prison for an indefinite period. He said that evidence gathered by the investigating officer failed to implicate the applicant in any criminal wrongdoing.

The counsel said that his client had recently undergone a tumor removal surgery, due to which his health condition could deteriorate in jail and therefore he was also entitled to bail on the ground of being sick and infirm person.

On the other hand, the FIA prosecutor as well as the complainant's lawyer opposed the bail application, arguing that there was sufficient evidence to link the accused with the alleged commissioning of the offence.

According to the FIR, the FIA Corporate Crime Circle Karachi initiated an inquiry on the complaint of Aasim Wajid Jawad, the chairman of Board of Directors of Al Falah Securities Pvt Ltd, against Atif and others on allegations of "corporate financial fraud by way of criminal misconduct, criminal breach of trust, abuse of fiduciary authority, falsification of accounts and dishonest misappropriation and utilization of company funds for wrongful gains”.

It claimed that as per report of the SECP Domain Expert, Additional Joint Director Adnan Ahmed, the former CEO engaged in his personal trading at the expense of the company's funds.

The FIA said the analysis of Atif's trading ledger during his tenure as CEO from July 2015 to December 2023 and statement of his bank accounts revealed that he received Rs1.404 billion from the bank accounts of Al-Falah CLSA Securities Pvt Ltd and returned only Rs1.324 billion.

"Hence, he not only utilized these company's funds for financing personal trades but also routed the same systematically to conceal his debit balance by way of manipulating the company's ledger thereby falsifying company's account.

At each withdrawal date, his trading account was in negative balance, meaning he owed money to the company, yet he continued his spree of withdrawing company funds and embezzled Rs80 million (approx.) as per company accounts.

While his debit balance stands at Rs539 million indicating that this amount is payable to the Company by Atif Mohammad Khan," it alleged.