KARACHI: A banking court on Wednesday directed the complainants to provide copies of documentary evidence against suspects involved in alleged pilferage of Rs11 billion worth of sugar stocks. The stocks had been pledged by eight sugar mills owned by the Omni Group to different banks against loans obtained by the group.

Ten suspects — including Khawaja Anver Majeed, Kha­waja Mustafa Zul­qarnain Majeed, Khawaja Ali Kamal Majeed, Khawaja Nimr Majeed, Rashid Ahmed Khan, Mohammad Zeeshan Khan and Sajjad Ahmed — have been accused of pilferage of the pledged sugar stocks by National Bank, Silk Bank, Summit Bank, and Sindh Bank. The banks had filed around 26 direct applications seeking registration of criminal cases against the CEOs/directors of eight sugar mills and imposition of penalties on them under Section 20 of the Institutions (Recovery of Finances) Ordinance, 2001.

On Wednesday, the matter was fixed before the banking court-III.

Judge Muhammad Saad Qureshi directed the complainants’ counsel to provide copies of the documentary evidence to the defence counsel for the suspects and fixed the matter on Nov 20 for their indictment. The court also repeated bailable warrants for arrest of the absconders.

The court granted interim pre-arrest bail to CEOs/directors of four mills — including Khawaja Mustafa Zulqarnain, Khawaja Salman, Ali Kamal — against a surety bond of Rs1m in the identical application. In the meanwhile, it also granted interim bail to Ashfaq Chaudhry, who was posted as muqaddam to look after the sugar stocks in these cases.­

Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2018