MULTAN, Sept 28: Claims worth Rs34.7 million were filed by ‘Madad committee’ victims on Saturday with a body formed by the district administration.

The claims are being received at the office of the Urban Union Council No 33 by its Nazim Zahid Aziz Butt, who is a member of the official committee headed by Multan city tehsil Nazim Faisal Mukhtar. The committee was constituted on Friday last with a view to return the deposits of the ‘Madad Committee’ members through whatever would be recovered from its patron, Tahir Sharif.

A PTCL technician, Tahir launched a sort of cooperative finance company a few months ago in Liaquatabad on old Shujaabad Road in the outskirts of Multan. The share price was fixed at Rs300 besides Rs10 service charges which would go to the kitty of Tahir. The profit ratio the Madad committee offered was surprisingly as high as 44 per cent a week.

Initially, the committee patron targeted his neighbourhood and then the adjoining localities of Muhammadpura and Tata Colony. Prior to his arrest by law enforcers on Thursday last, his business had crossed the provincial boundaries.

The committee was transacting millions of rupees daily at its four kanal office in Liaquatabad where eight booths were set up for depositing the amount. Two of them were for women ‘investors’.

The area people told Dawn that queues of the ‘investors’ were increasing day after day as the committee had kept making payments to its members regularly.

On the first day of Tahir’s arrest, hundreds of beneficiaries became violent when police attempted to enter the committee office. The policemen were given a sound thrashing reportedly both by men and women. The next day on Friday the miscreants again created the law and order situation.

A police handout claimed that Tahir had confessed to swindling the people and had made millions of rupees within a few months. To pacify the impatient depositors, the police and city tehsil administration had constituted a nine-member committee to receive claims.

The official committee had received some 2000 claims in the last 24 hours of a total sum of Rs34.7 million.

The people on old Shujaabad Road remained peaceful on Saturday as no untoward incident was reported. But, the residents of Liquatabad, Muhammadpura and Tata Colony were concerned about the return of their small savings. They had deposited money after mortgaging their movable and immovable properties.

Meanwhile, police have taken two more persons — Aleem Shah and Sheikh Umer — into custody for their alleged involvement in plundering the madad committee office on Friday. It is feared that plunderers had removed at least Rs20 to Rs30 million from the committee office by taking advantage of police-public clashes. Aleem Shah is said to be the councillor of UC 33, Liaquatabad. The plunderers ransacked the committee office and took away even the ceiling fans and electric fittings.

When contacted, Multan DPO Hamid Mukhtar Gondal did not confirm that alleged plunderers had stolen any amount from the madad committee office. Some people had attacked the committee office and took away electric appliances, including computers, but the presence of amount as big as Rs20 to Rs30 million could not be verified, he said.

The DPO said the prime focus was to recover as much assets as possible from the madad committee people so that payments could be made to the depositors.

On the other hand, the PTCL informed the police that no case had so far been lodged against Tahir. The PTCL authorities had sought details of the criminal cases, if any, registered against Tahir.