The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is yet to arrest a superintendent of police and an army major despite having strong evidence of their involvement in the Canal Motors scam, The Express Tribune has learnt.
SP Rana Mansoorul Haq and Major Hameed Rana and their families financially benefitted from the Canal Motors scam, according to details of NAB investigations revealed to The Express Tribune. At least 175 people were defrauded of Rs1.18 billion in the scam.
The main accused, Canal Motors director Rana Qaisar Nazeer, and several other co-accused are in NAB custody.
According to the NAB report, investigators found unusual transactions in two accounts owned by Maj Rana that linked him to Canal Motors. Eighty per cent of the transactions at a Standard Chartered account, worth Rs20 million, and a NIB Bank account, worth Rs6 million, were inward and outward transactions from Canal Motors customers or Nazeer.
The report says Major Rana had an FIR registered at Walton police station on February 19, 2010 in which he accused two brothers named Iftikhar Ali and Ilyas Amin of giving him a fake cheque. On the basis of the FIR, he sought to claim a property – registered under the brothers’ names. But NAB investigators knew that that property actually belonged to Nazeer and had placed it under caution.
Similarly, the major received Rs1.6 million in lieu of the sale of a car, again using the said FIR. That car was registered to Nazeer’s wife Amna Qaisar.
The bureau also believes that Major Rana violated army rules by registering as a director of Nouvelle Catering and Event Management Services while in service.
Investigators found 132 payment invoices, amounting to approximately Rs378 million, of Canal Motors and The Versatile Associates which showed Major Rana to be a partner of the main accused, Nazeer, in the car dealership and a scrap business.
Finally, Nazeer told NAB officials that the major and the SP were beneficiaries in the scam. He and co-accused Mohsin Abbasi said that the major owed them Rs160 million.
Major Rana has filed a statement with NAB regarding the charges, but the bureau found his response to be unsatisfactory, according to the report.
The evidence against SP Haq also includes documentary evidence and witness accounts. The SP of Sadar Sub-Division, Lahore, allegedly kidnapped Nazeer, Mohsin Abbasi and Ahsan Abbasi, another co-
accused, on March 7, 2010, and detained them until March 16, during which time he forced them to sign over properties worth millions of rupees to his close friends and family.
The report also outlines the scam that Canal Motors ran. It said that Nazeer would offer cars to customers at discounted prices. But after they paid and before they were to receive their cars, he would call them to say that another customer was willing to pay extra for the car, and if they agreed to delay delivery for another month, they would be entitled to the profit. Many claimants told NAB that they had received these profit cheques, though they never received cars or their full payments back.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 25th, 2011.
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