FIA initiates inquiry against Nadia Hussain under Peca for ‘baseless allegations’ against officials
An inquiry has been initiated by the FIA against model turned actor Nadia Hussain under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act after it claimed she levelled “unfounded and baseless allegations against FIA officials”.
Hussain’s husband, Atif Muhammad Khan, was arrested by the FIA on March 8 in a case relating to embezzlement of funds during his tenure as CEO of Al-Falah Securities, according to an FIA press statement issued on Friday. The criminal inquiry against him was initiated on the complaint of the chairman of the Al-Falah Securities board of directors.
On Friday night, the FIA conducted a raid on her home in Karachi’s DHA and seized her mobile phone as part of the investigation into the charges against her. The FIA’s Additional Director Cyber Crime Reporting Centre Karachi, Shahzad Haider, told Dawn that they received information from the agency’s zonal office in Karachi that Hussain had levelled charges of bribery against the FIA’s Karachi director.
In the press note, the FIA Karachi Zone spokesperson said that after an “exhaustive” inquiry, it had been “unambiguously substantiated that Atif Mohammad Khan embezzled Rs540 million from Al-Falah Securities CLSA Pvt Ltd by misusing his position as its CEO and committing such acts which constituted criminal breach of trust, falsification of accounts and books, fraud and forgery”.
While her husband was in custody, Hussain took to Instagram on Wednesday to share a series of videos in which she said a man impersonating a police official had been trying to extort money from her in exchange for her husband being granted bail.
“Regarding the case, time and the courts will tell,” she said, adding that she had been cautioned by her lawyers not to say much about the case. After praising the FIA’s corporate crime department and expressing her gratitude to them for ensuring her husband was comfortable, she said her video was not about the case at all.
Instead, she spoke about a man who identified himself to her as “director of the FIA Karachi Zone” and said he attempted to extort Rs30 million.
She said that she initially believed the man was an actual FIA official, but soon realised he was an impersonator attempting to defraud her. In her post, she included screenshots of conversations and voice notes purportedly sent to her by him.
She said he wanted Rs5 million in cash within 15 minutes to be sent by her driver to him and then the rest of the amount the next day.
Hussain said she had already reported the man to the FIA and will be talking to Nadra officials to ask how her family members’ phone numbers “were so easily available”.
In the press statement, the FIA Karachi spokesperson confirmed the existence of the extortionist, calling them a “fraudster using photo of a senior FIA official as DP” who demanded a bribe from Hussain, adding she was advised by the FIA to report it immediately to its Cyber Crime Reporting Centre in Karachi.
“However, she chose otherwise and resorted to her social media account to hurl unfounded and baseless allegations against FIA officials, which is a cognisable offence under the law.”
Hussain has not publicly addressed the FIA investigation.