Sialkot Suzuki scam: NAB arrests key suspect

Khalid Mehmood was the manager at the showroom.

LAHORE:

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Punjab chapter arrested Khalid Mehmood, one of the key men behind the Rs1.1 billion Sialkot Suzuki Motors scandal.

Mehmood was an accountant and manager at a Suzuki showroom that had promised people to provide vehicles at rates much lower than the market price of the cars.

As a result about 150 people were cheated. NAB started an inquiry into the scandal in September, 2010.

Punjab NAB director, Atiqur Rehman, while talking to The Express Tribune confirmed Mehmood’s arrest.

The bureau has also cautioned the properties and bank accounts of the accused that include company director, Saima Sultan, accounts officer Khalid Mehmood and another accomplice. Their names have also been placed on Exit Control List (ECL), investigators said.

Sources familiar with the matter told The Express Tribune that the principal accused, Saima Sultan, through an application had agreed to surrender her property through a Voluntary Return (VR) but the bureau had asked her to pay the full amount owed to the fraud victims.

NAB had earlier also summoned the former SP Sialkot and sitting District Police Officer (DPO) Muzaffargarh Rao Munir Ahmed Zia in connection with the case. A complainant, in a letter to the NAB, had accused the police officer of misusing his authority and receiving monetary benefits from the accused.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 15^th, 2011.