HYDERABAD: The Accoun-tability Court-II has directed National Accountability Bureau to file reference in the multibillion rupees land scam case of M6 Hyderabad-Sukkur Motorway’s Matiari section.

The judge Mehboob Ali Dayo on Friday issued the directive and adjourned the hearing till May 11 after he was informed by NAB prosecutor that inquiry in an identical land scam case of M6 Naushahro Feroze district’s section had already been transferred to NAB.

The case was simultaneously pending trial in provincial anticorruption court in Sukkur and banking court in Karachi. Now the case would be transferred to NAB Hyderabad for carrying out formal inquiry after DG NAB’s permission.

On Friday, all the accused in the M6 Matiari case appeared in the court. Jurial Shah, junior clerk in Matiari DC office was on bail while former Matiari deputy commissioner Adnan Rasheed, former assistant commissioner Saeedabad Mansoor Ali Shah, former Sindh Bank manager Tabish Ali Shah and Ashiq Kaleri were brought to the court from Nara prison Hyderabad where they were interned. Aslam Pirzada and Illahi Bux, who were granted interim pre-arrest bail in the case by Sindh High Court, also attended the hearing.

Accused given last chance to file objections on freezing of their bank accounts, properties

NAB’s investigating officer Irfan Ali submitted compliance report about freezing of properties of accused Ashique Hussain Kaleri, a private person, his family members and benamidars.

Beneficiaries of properties Mehrunnissa, Farhana, Shaukat Ali, Nusrat and Shakil Ahmed filed undertaking along with affidavits which were made part of the record.

The court passed the order for freezing properties of the accused Ashiq Hussain Kaleri, his family members and benamidars under section 12 (c) of the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), 1999, and issued a letter to authorities concerned for compliance of the order for freezing of properties.

The court issued non-bailable warrants for absconding accused, Raheel Ahmed Shaikh, Rehmatullah Solangi and Asghar Ali Jatoi. Ayaz Hussain Tunio filed a statement along with application for acceptance of plea bargain under section 25(b) NAO, 1999, along with affidavit of his client, Ashique Hussain Kaleri.

The court forwarded the original application for plea bargain to NAB director general Karachi for its disposal according to the law.

The counsel submitted application for unfreezing of bank account of Ashique Kaleri, his sons Ali Raza and Babar Ali on which the court issued notices to NAB prosecutor and sought report from the investigating officer in this regard.

According to Kaleri’s counsel, Ayaz Tunio, his family members informed the court that they were ready to surrender the property. Kaleri was arrested in Karachi on Jan 21 by NAB officials, who recovered Rs137,590,000 from his possession.

Mohammad Zubair, one of the defense counsels, submitted applications to seek extension in time to file objection on application of freezing of bank accounts and properties of Subhan Khatoon and others. The court allowed his application as a last chance to file objections, if any, till next date of hearing.

The IO also submitted application under section 344 CrPC for adjournment and grant of time to complete the investigation in order to file final reference of the case till next date of hearing. The court adjourned the matter till May 11 with directives to produce the accused before the court.

The M6 land scam case was unearthed in November in Matiari district where former DC, AC and Sindh Bank area manager were arrested in connection with Rs2.3 billion embezzlement and suspicious transaction of funds deposited by National Highway Authority (NHA) for the acquisition of land for M6 project.

The funds were withdrawn in cash from the bank on the directives of the former AC, who was acting as land acquisition officer (LAO). The funds were withdrawn in cash even without passage of land acquisition award under section 11 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, by the LAO.

In Naushahro Feroze, around Rs2.52bn were embezzled in the land scam for the disbursement of land acquisition award to landowners for the land to be used for M6 Sukkur-Hyderabad motorway.

Naushahro Feroze DC Tashfeen Alam Khan had fled abroad after the scam was unearthed and he was subsequently suspended by Sindh government.

Matiari DC Adnan Rasheed was, however, arrested soon after detection of the fraud by the inquiry team appointed by Sindh Chief Secretary Dr Mohammad Sohail Rajput in November 2022.

The funds in both the land scam cases of Matiari and Naushahro Feroze were transferred by NHA, which was land acquiring agency in the project.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2023