Investigation under way : Modaraba swindlers given in 10-day custody

Shah, Ali were running an illegal business called MM Qureshi International Ltd.

PESHAWAR: Two men accused of running an illegal Modaraba business and swindling unsuspecting people out of millions of rupees were handed over to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for 10 more days by an accountability court.

Investigation Officer Syed Akhtar produced the accused Mubarak Shah and Shahid Ali in the court of judge Muhammad Ibrahim Khan on Monday to obtain an extension in their physical remand.

Senior Prosecutor Lajbar Khan told the court the accused were running an illegal Modaraba business under the garb of a company named MM Qureshi International (Pvt) Limited, with an office at Deans Trade Centre.

Khan further said the accused have transferred the profit they made to banks abroad, and NAB was attempting to get the amounts transferred back to the country.

The application which NAB had filed earlier in court to obtain the custody of the accused reads: “The evidence collected so far reveals that there are many other accused persons in this malpractice and further investigation is necessary to unearth the real facts.”

In a separate case, the accountability court also extended the physical remand of four people of the income tax department of Abbottabad involved in embezzling Rs160 million on the pretext of assisting people affected in the 2005 earthquake.

The accused include income tax commissioner Asif Haider as well as other officials. According to NAB, the officers allegedly prepared bogus income tax refund documents.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 29^th, 2014.