KARACHI: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) arrested five suspects in a cooperative society fraud case, said a NAB spokesperson on Saturday.

The accountability body conducted a series of raids on Friday and Saturday respectively and apprehended five suspects who were wanted in an investigation against office holders of the Karimabad Ismailia Multipurpose Cooperative Society Karachi.

The held suspects were identified as Nazar Ali, purported director of the society, Shaukat Hussain, purported chairman/vice chairman of the society, Zulfiqar Hassan Ali, former purported secretary of the society, Mohammad Ali, illegal beneficiary of flats and co-conspirator and Sikandar Ali, illegal beneficiary of flat and co-conspirator.

The accused with the connivance of each other held a “sham election of society in violation of society by-laws and illegally took over management of society,” the spokesperson added.

The Karimabad Ismailia Multipurpose Cooperative Society is located at main Federal B Area Karachi.

It was prima facie established against them that they were involved in various offences like misappropriation of society funds, security deposits and transfer fees, etc.

They made illegal allotments of flats to their favourites in violation of society by-laws and illegally converted amenity area of more than 9,000 square feet and sold it, against which the amounts went to their own pockets.

The amenity areas were otherwise earmarked for primary school, library, day-care centre and recreational area.

The accused caused a loss to society to the tune of Rs750 million approximately.

Published in Dawn, July 16th, 2018