Court hands over accused to NAB custody for 10 days

LAHORE: An accountability court on Friday handed over accused, involved in fraud of billions of rupees with the general public, to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on a 10-day physical remand.

Earlier, the NAB officials produced Muhammad Ahmad Sayal, director of the Multi-Level Marketing company, before Accountability Court judge Syed Najamul Hassan and sought his physical remand for investigation.

The court directed the NAB authorities to produce the accused again on Jan 29. According to NAB, the accused was involved in cheating and defrauding the general public by luring them into getting motorbikes only for Rs 25,000.

In 2017, the accused got registered his firm with the Securities Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and started his business of import and export of spare-parts. Later on, the accused, in connivance with other co-accused, launched the Munafa Network Marketing company and began receiving hefty amounts for providing motorcycles for Rs 25,000 cash on the promise of delivery within 45 days.

After this, hundreds of offices were opened in different cities like Multan, Faisalabad, Sheikhupura, Sargodha, Layyah, Sahiwal, Jhang, Thatha and Cheechawatni, accordingly, where thousands of agents were collecting billions of rupees from the public just for their own commission of Rs 1000 per bike.

Initially, owners of the Munafa company distributed around 20,000 motorbikes as a ploy to attract more investment. By sniffing the deceitful act, SECP referred the case of treachery to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) which later on transferred the case to the NAB Lahore in Sept 2017, keeping in view the magnitude of embezzlement.

Initially, NAB Lahore arrested co-accused Iqbal Zafar on January 15, who has been facing allegation of embezzling Rs 17.8 million. The grilling of Iqbal Zafar led to the arrest of Ahmad Sayal, the main culprit.