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| April 28, 2006 | Friday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 29, 1427 |
Key figure of Swiss visa scam flees
ISLAMABAD, April 27: An important character of the Swiss Visa scam Major (retired) Ajmal has reportedly fled the country, and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) is all set to seek his arrest through Interpol.
Director General FIA Mr Tariq Pervez confirmed that Major Ajmal had left the country and that his agency intended to seek the help of Interpol for his arrest.
“We first need to get arrest warrants from the courts before requesting Interpol for help and we would be doing that fairly soon,” he told Dawn.
Major Ajmal travelled to Karachi from where he left the country on board a foreign airline.
Although it could not be independently verified, but sources close to the investigation claim that he was assisted by a couple of diplomats in fleeing from the country and settling abroad.
Major Ajmal was Ashir Francis’ predecessor and was transferred following allegations of corruption and misuse of authority. However, Swiss embassy had been claiming that he had been fired following the complaints.
He was named by Ashir Francis as one of his accomplices along with some other diplomats while being investigated during the remand period.
Major Ajmal is also known to have visited Ashir Francis along with a Swiss diplomat in the lock-up of Secretariat Police Station following his arrest. He had gone there to reassure Ashir Francis of the Swiss Embassy’s support and ask him to keep his mouth shut about other characters in the scam.
But, once it was confirmed that Ashir Francis had divulged the whole story to the investigators, his escape plan was prepared to save others involved.
It is being anticipated that with Major Ajmal gone all others in the case would pass on the entire blame onto him to save their necks.
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