Court grants interim bail to JDW Sugar Mills’ chief operating officer in money laundering case

LAHORE (APP): A special court of banking offences on Thursday granted interim bail to JDW Sugar Mills’ Chief Operating Officer Rana Naseem Ahmad Khan in a case registered by Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) under charges of money laundering and fraud in sugar scam.

The court ordered Rana Naseem for submitting two surety bonds of Rs 500,000 each for availing the relief of the bail, besides seeking a report about the case from FIA till April 7.

Special Court Judge Chaudhry Ameer Muhammad Khan heard the pre-arrest bail petition moved by Rana Naseem.

A counsel on behalf of the petitioner argued before the court that the agency had registered a case against his client and others on charges of money laundering and fraud.

He submitted that his client was innocent and all allegations were baseless. He submitted that his client wanted to join the investigations and pleaded with the court for grant of bail.

At this, the court, after hearing the arguments, reserved its verdict for a short while but later, it granted interim bail to the accused and asked him for submitting surety bonds.

It is pertinent to mention here that the FIA’s Lahore circle had registered two FIRs against Jahangir Tareen, his son Ali Tareen, son-in-law and others under charges of money laundering and fraud in the sugar scam.

Rana Naseem Ahmad Khan had  been nominated in one of the FIRs which were registered under sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating of public shareholders) and 109 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), read with sections 3/4 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act.

Meanwhile, the court also granted bail to 14 sugar pricing manipulators (satta-agents) in a case registered by FIA under charges of ‘speculative pricing’ commonly known as ‘Satta’.

The court had also issued notices to FIA for April 5 and 6 and sought a report.

Those who obtained bail include Broker Khurram Shahzad, Muhammad Zaheer, Muhammad Akram and  Mehmood Akhtar.

The FIA had detected Rs110 billion earnings by the ‘sugar mafia’ during the last one year through ‘speculative pricing’ and also registered an FIR against the accused.