Scotland Yard drops MQM’s money laundering case

LONDON: Scotland Yard announced on Thursday that no “further action will be taken against Altaf Hussain” and others in the long-running money-laundering case, deciding to drop the investigation altogether and effectively ensuring that the sensitive evidence involved in this case doesn’t go to public for fear of causing rifts between Pakistan, the UK and India.

The case against the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Chief Altaf Hussain started in the end of 2012 when the police found a large amount of cash at the MQM’s International Secretariat. Scotland Yard said during the course of investigation that it had “credible evidence that the MQM received funds from the Indian government sources and broke the electoral laws of Pakistan and the UK”.

Hammersmith Magistrates Court had given deadline to the police to produce evidence in the court on next Wednesday on the application of Sarfraz Merchant, a co-accused in the money-laundering case, alongwith Tariq Mir, M Anwar, Yasin Haji,Latif Jiwa and others.

A source in the police said that the police and the prosecutors had to decide whether to reveal evidence before the court on Wednesday and thus let the media pounce on it or suppress it by dropping the case altogether so that nothing ever comes to the public light.

“The Metropolitan Police Service has today, Wednesday, 13 October, following a detailed evidential review and upon receipt of legal advice, made the decision to withdraw their application in a civil case under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 for the forfeiture of over £500,000 in cash. The cash had been seized from a number of venues between 2012 and 2014. Having examined all of the evidence the Met has accepted that there is insufficient evidence to prove that the money seized was the proceeds of crime or was intended for use in unlawful conduct,” said the police in a statement.

Since 2013, officers from the Met's National Terrorist Financial Investigation Unit investigated allegations of money laundering to which the civil proceedings were linked. Officers have worked diligently on the investigation and thoroughly investigated all of the evidence to establish if any laws had been broken in the UK.

The police said that during the course of investigation, six people were arrested; 11 other people were interviewed under caution; a total of 28 interviews were conducted at police stations of persons under investigation; over 100 witness statements were taken; nine premises were searched which were located in the South and North of England.”

It said that all reasonable lines of enquiry have been exhausted, including international enquiries. The police said that a case file had been submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service for their careful consideration. “Officers have now received their advice, taking into account all of the evidence identified during the course of the investigation, that there is not a realistic prospect of a successful prosecution under UK law, therefore the investigation is now complete and no further action will be taken.”

The police found £167,525.92 in the MQM’s offices in London and a further £289,785.32 in Mr Hussain’s home during raids. Altaf Hussain was arrested on June 3, 2014 by the Metropolitan Police and then released on bail.

The News had said in a report on May 21 that Scotland Yard has passed incomplete case file to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for the charging decision giving birth to questions about the very future of the whole investigation.

This correspondent had revealed in that report quoting credible sources that the police file was passed to the CPS despite the fact that Counter-terrorism Command Uunit, responsible for investigating the money-laundering case, was aware that the “case file” at the stage of submission to the CPS, in April, was incomplete because of the fact that several people refused to cooperate with the police in its investigations and the police didn’t pursue the suspects rigorously as it routinely does where it wills to do so.