Chaudhry Sugar Mills case: LHC grants post-arrest bail to Nawaz's nephew

The Lahore High Court on Tuesday granted post-arrest bail to Yousuf Abbas, nephew of the former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, in Chaudhry Sugar Mills and money laundering case. Earlier, the counsel of the accused contended that the NAB had accused his client of committing Rs410 million money laundering but the whole money was transferred through banking channel and tax was also paid on it.

He pointed out that Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz were also accused in the case and NAB's allegations against Yousaf Abbas were weaker than Sharifs' and both of them had already been granted bail in the same case.

He said the NAB had taken the same stance against Maryam and Abbas but the later was only accused of helping the former in money laundering. He said Abbas had been behind the bars since August 08, 2019, but reference had not been filed in the trial court so far. He argued that Abbas had spent 48 days in NAB custody on physical remand but no solid proof was produced against him.

However, the NAB prosecutor said that Abbas was the director of Chaudhry Sugar Mills from 2006 to 2018 and a huge amount of Rs438 million was transferred to his account from abroad. It was further alleged that more than Rs1 billion were transferred to Ramzan Sugar Mills from the account of Abbas. The court allowing bail to the applicant directed him to submit two surety bonds worth Rs10 million each for securing his release on bail.