SC seeks reply from NAB in Rs10b scam

ISLAMABAD:

The apex court on Tuesday sought reply from the top anti-corruption body on a bail plea of a suspect charged with looting around Rs10 billion from people in the name of a lottery.

The suspect was accused of defrauding people in the name of a lottery which he had named Lucky Committee.

A three-member bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Justice Mushir Alam, heard the bail plea of a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) prisoner.

During the hearing, the suspects' lawyer Nadeem Bandeshah said that his client was handed over to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in 2018.

However, he contended that the suspect has yet to be indicted. The court was told that NAB had filed three separate references against the suspects and in each of them, it kept increasing the number of affectees of the fraudulent scheme.

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Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin remarked that a massive fraud of around Rs10 billion has been committed. The Lucky Committee trapped people with the promise of gifting them motorbikes. “A common man saves for months to buy a motorbike,” he remarked.

The counsel argued that his client was but an employee of the company and working as the in-charge for Gojra region.

At this, Justice Yahya Afridi asked how many people were given motorbikes in Gojra. To this, the lawyer replied as the suspect could recall, around 40 motorbikes were distributed amongst the people.

The court issued a notice to NAB and adjourned the hearing indefinitely

Published in The Express Tribune, July 29^th, 2020.