Sugarcane growers: Three accused of misappropriating subsidy still not held, AC told

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Thursday informed Accountability Court hearing multi-billion rupees fake bank accounts case that three accused pertaining to misappropriation of subsidy given to sugarcane growers are yet to be arrested.

NAB prosecutor Sohail Arif submitted a report before the Accountability Court Judge Muhammad Bashir regarding non-arrest of three accused who fled the country. He informed the court that three accused including Ali Kamal Majeed, Nimr Majeed and Minahil Majeed have not yet been arrested.

He told the court that NAB has obtained home address of accused Zulfiqar and issued notice to him through relevant district police officer to appear before the court. Two accused including Sulman Younus and Mustafa Zulqarnain have filed acquittal application before the court through their counsel in the wake of NAB Amendment Ordinance, 2019.

The court issued notice to NAB with respect to acquittal application of both the accused and sought arguments from the Bureau in next hearing to be held on February 18. 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 Sindh government to sugar mills as a subsidy for onward payment to sugarcane farmers.

The Sindh government through provincial cane commissioner paid Rs3.9 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 investigations 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.