BADIN: Khoski police were on Monday given two days to produce two bank fraud suspects along with a third suspect in court amid reports that the higher police authorities of the district had decided to quash an FIR registered against the two.

Hatim Shar and Ammanullah Shar, managers of the Khoski Sugar Mills, and cane broker Ghulam Mutafa Khatti were booked in connection with a Rs700-750 million scam reportedly being investigated by the Crime Investigation Agency (CIA). The two managers were whisked away by plain-clothes officials for interrogation a couple of weeks ago while Mr Khatti obtained his pre-arrest bail.

The managers were required to be produced in court on Monday, i.e. 14 days after registration of the FIR, but Khoski SHO Abdul Ghaffar Khushk approached the Tando Bago civil court with a request for more time stating that “further investigations” by the police as well as the mill management were under way. The court allowed the police two extra days to produce them along with the charge-sheet.

The FIR registered on June 18 accused Hatim Shar and Ammanullah Shar of defrauding the local branch of the Sindh Bank using around 200 CNICs of growers to draw Rs700-750 million. The documents submitted in the bank suggested that the amount would be disbursed among the growers as agricultural loans.

Khuda Bukhsh Jamali, the cane procurement officer at the mill who lodged the FIR, claimed that the growers either did not receive any loan or did not know about the amount of loan drawn on their behalf.

The suspects, when contacted on Monday to ascertain progress of the investigation, said that Aurngzeb Khan and Shuja Rehman, the resident president and audit manager, respectively, of the Omni Group had already completed a thorough probe into the affair on the orders of the group’s high-ups and found them (the suspected managers) innocent.

They said the group and owners of the sugar mill were in the process of getting the FIR quashed and were in touch with the Badin police in this regard.

Hatim Shar said that the scam was a conspiracy to malign the group and the mill and company “amidst the changed political situation”.

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2015

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