Fake accounts case: NAB asked to submit report on sugarcane subsidy on January 20

The Accountability Court hearing multibillion rupees fake bank accounts case on Thursday directed National Accountability Bureau to submit progress report of investigations conducted regarding misappropriation in the government subsidy awarded for sugarcane growers during the next hearing on January 20.

Accountability Court Judge Muhammad Bashir hearing a corruption reference about misappropriation in the government subsidy for farmers, asked National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to submit its progress report and provide copies of reference to all accused persons.

The NAB prosecutor told the court that interrogations from the accused in different cases are under way. Investigation of the case had not yet been completed, he said, and requested the court to grant more time for completion of probe.

Abdul Ghani Majeed, Khawaja Mustafa Zulqarnain, Sulman Younus and other accused persons appeared before the court. The NAB has nominated 40 accused in the reference.

The Bureau filed the reference against the accused over charges of embezzlement of millions of funds issued by the government of Sindh to sugar mills as a subsidy for onward payment to sugarcane farmers.

The Sindh government through provincial cane commissioner paid Rs 3.9 billion to different sugar mills for onward payment to genuine sugarcane growers as subsidy on account of supply of sugarcane for the season 2014-15.

An investigation was conducted against eight sugar mills owned by Omni Group of Anwar Majeed and his four sons Abdul Ghani Majeed, Nimr Majeed, Mustafa Zulqarnain Majeed and Ali Kamal Majeed.

The investigation revealed that out of Rs 728.18 million subsidy granted to eight sugar mills of Omni Group, an amount of Rs 346 million had been allegedly misappropriated in connivance with senior employees by showing their low-paid staff as sugarcane growers.