A banking court in Karachi on Friday dismissed an application filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) seeking custody of detained businessman Abdul Ghani Majeed for interrogation in a separate land encroachment and graft case.

Majeed along with his father Anwar Majeed, head of the M/s Omni Group and a close aide of the former president Asif Ali Zardari, has been named in a case pertaining to alleged fake bank accounts and money laundering worth billions.

Also read: NAB reports progress in fake accounts case investigation to SC

On Friday, a NAB prosecutor informed the banking court judge that AG Majeed's custody was required by the federal anti-graft watchdog for interrogation in connection with a reference pertaining to alleged land encroachment.

The encroachment in question is over the amenity land of the storm-water drain, Nehar-i-Khayam, pending trial before the accountability court concerned at Karachi.

The prosecutor requested the judge to issue necessary directives to the prison authorities to hand over Majeed's custody to NAB officials and grant permission to formally arrest him.

However, Judge Tariq Mehmood Khoso dismissed the application observing that the matter did not fall within the domain of the banking court and therefore it could not hand over the custody of the detained suspect to NAB.

According to the reference, Abbas Ali Agha, one of the directors of M/s Ocean Private Limited, in connivance with Manzoor Qadir, alias Manzoor Qadir Kaka, the then wanted director general of the Sindh Building Control Authority, is allegedly involved in illegal restoration of a 4,000-square-yard plot situated at Nehr-i-Khayyam in Block-5, Clifton.

The bureau claims that Majeed is also involved in encroachment of the amenity land valued around Rs2 billion.