BADIN: Federal Investi­ga­tion Agency (FIA) teams visited several sugar mills owned or operated by the Omni Group late on Thursday evening and took some records in their custody during an hours-long search that reportedly ended around 3am Friday.

The teams also visited the Sindh Bank branch functioning on the premises of the Khoski Sugar Mills and obtained record of transactions from the staff before leaving the bank.

The FIA had carried out raids on the Khoski Sugar Mills on Aug 26 and 31 and seized its records in the shape of files and computer hard disks for investigation. The raiding teams also claimed that seven sub-machineguns and four semi-automatic rifles were also found there and taken into custody. An FIR (No. 67/2018) was registered on the complaint of FIA Inspec­tor Mohammad Saleem against the management.

It is learnt that the FIA teams’ visit pertained to the ongoing investigations into the massive money laundering scam allegedly involving the owners and operatives of the sugar mills. The teams visited the Bawani Sugar Mills in Talhar and Ansari Sugar Mills near Matli, besides the Khoski Sugar Mills in Khoski town.

They interrogated management officers of the mills about the mills’ financial matters and “disappearance” of a huge stock of sugar in recent weeks while official directions prohibiting release of any stocks had been in place.

Published in Dawn, November 3rd, 2018