LAHORE, Nov 17: Special judicial magistrate Faisal Jameel on Monday extended physical remand of Munaaf Kalia, Javed Khanani and co-accused Tariq Mahmood for three days for investigation into charges of money laundering.

However, co-accused Rustam Ali was sent on a judicial remand.

The appellants through counsels Akram Sheikh, Sharjeel Adnan and Naveed Farooqi submitted that the FIA had arrested them on Nov 5 and obtained their physical remand from the court of a local magistrate which was later extended for three more days.

Counsel for Javed Khanani pleaded that a judicial magistrate could not hear a case registered under Section 23(a) of the Foreign Exchange Act 1947 or give remand of the accused booked under this Act. He said the offense of their clients was bailable and police could not detain. But FIA still had been keeping their clients in illegal custody.

Therefore, he argued, the physical remand of Khanani obtained by FIA was illegal and unlawful, and his client’s bail application should be accepted. The counsel prayed before the court that his clients should be released on bail as they were not involved in any money laundering case.

Prosecution lawyer Azam Nazir Tarar argued that these habeas corpus applications had been filed to pressurise the judicial magistrate, which had the power to hear the matter. He prayed that their bail application should be rejected.

Meanwhile, District and Sessions Judge Syed Nasir Ali Shah disposed of habeas corpus petitions filed for the recovery of Munaaf Kalia and Javed Khanani.

Warrants: Additional District and Sessions Judge Qamar Ijaz issued arrest warrants for a sub-inspector (SI) for the third time in the trial of the accused of raping a seven-year-old girl. The policeman was to record his statement in the trial but he has been avoiding it since Sept 13. The court adjourned the hearing till Nov 22.

The court is holding the trial of rape accused Zubair who, according to prosecution, along with Talha, Muzammal and Muzaffar on March 11, 2008, raped Tayyaba.

Earlier, Dr Abid Hussain from the Tehsil Headquarters Hospital in Muridke informed that court that he had sent the specimen of Zubair to Mayo Hospital for potency testing through the SI.

A public prosecutor said police had not got any results of the test. Free Legal Assistance and Settlement Chairman Anis AA Saadi said Dr Abid was a competent authority to access the potency test results of the accused but to delay the matter and favour the accused he was not getting it.

The alleged rape victim’s mother, four prosecution witnesses, and a doctor, who conducted medical test of the victim, have recorded their statements.