KARACHI, April 23: The Federal Investigation Agency has initiated a thorough probe into the alleged supply of subsidised sugar from godowns of the Utility Stores Corporation — meant for low-income groups of Sindh — to industrial units, following a recent seizure of truckloads of sugar being supplied to a beverage production unit, it emerged on Saturday. Investigators privy to the case said FIA staff recently intercepted a major sugar consignment being offloaded at one of the city’s largest beverage production units that was consuming the commodity as raw material, after a series of intelligence reports were received about ‘leakages of the commodity’ dumped in the Korangi godown through illegal sources and with the ‘connivance of officials’.

“Just a few days back, an FIA team acting on a tip-off followed three trucks loaded with sugar bags as they left the Korangi USC godown, one of the USC’s largest facilities in the city,” said Akbar Baloch, the deputy director of the FIA crime circle in Karachi. “They were intercepted while offloading the commodity at the production unit of a beverage company — Mehran Bottlers — in the SITE area.”

He said that during interrogation of the consignment handlers it emerged that they were supplying 600 bags of sugar, each weighing 50 kilograms, to the beverage company. “They also confessed they had supplied several hundred sugar bags to the company over the last few days.”

The official said the FIA seized the commodity along with the trucks and arrested the handlers, the production unit manager and an official of the USC godown. During the initial probe it was learnt that the commodity was also being sold by USC officials illegally with the assistance of ‘some brokers’ to other production units in the industrial area, he added.

“Subsequently, the case (FIR No 9/2011) was registered against the official in charge of the USC, Jawaid Iqbal, a few other officials, and the beverage company owner, Zeeshan Zafar Habib, under Sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), 477-A (falsification of accounts), 486 (selling goods marked with a counterfeit trade mark or property mark), and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code,” said Mr Baloch.

The investigators said the recent incident lent strength to their suspicions about an existing nexus between USC officials and industrial units and efforts were under way to trace more such supplies. They said the FIA, however, had not yet been able to arrest key suspects.

USC version The USC, however, sees the incident as the result of some ‘confusion’ and ‘misunderstanding’ though the officials at the government-run chain of stores said an in-house inquiry had also been ordered to look into the FIA allegations.

“We keep and maintain record of each and every commodity and their supply,” said the USC spokesman. “It’s not possible for any USC official or workers at the warehouses to manipulate or maneuver the record to such an extent that bulk of sugar is being supplied to industrial units. We believe there is some misunderstanding on part of the FIA.”

However, he confirmed that the inquiry had already been ordered into the incident and a team of officials was on its task gathering facts to report to the authorities concerned.

Established under the federal ministry of industries, production and special initiatives in 1971, the USC is mandated to provide relief mainly to the poorer segment of society by supplying essential goods, including food and non-food items, to them on subsidised rates.

The fresh incident set alarms bell ringing in the quarters concerned as FIA officials sounded confident that they would take further actions and pursue the case that has already been registered.

“We have been pursing the legal proceedings and also making efforts for the arrest of the key suspects. The FIA move came after due diligence and the consignment was caught red-handed when it was about to be offloaded inside the production unit,” said Mr Baloch, the deputy director of the FIA crime circle in Karachi.