NAB court decides indicting accused in Omni Group subsidy case

ISLAMABAD: An accountability court in Islamabad has decided indicting all accused in a case against Omni Group for illegally getting sugarcane subsidy after manipulating employees’ records, ARY News reported on Wednesday.

The accountability court’s judge Asghar Ali conducted the hearing of sugarcane subsidy reference against Omni Group.

A report was also presented before the court in today’s hearing regarding the seizure of properties owned by four proclaimed offenders.

Later, the court decided to indict all accused on January 7 and adjourned the hearing.

Read: Fake accounts case: NAB to seize properties of Omni Group CEO’s wife

In November, an accountability court in Islamabad deferred indictment of OMNI Group Chief Anwar Majeed and others over charges of embezzlement in sugarcane subsidy.

The NAB court had ordered to block CNICs of the accused and confiscate their properties besides directing provision of reference copies to the accused.

Sugarcane subsidy reference

The Government of Sindh through the Cane Commissioner Sindh paid an amount of Rs 3.9 billion to different sugar mills for onward payment to sugarcane growers as subsidy on account of supply of sugarcane for the season 2014-15.

Read: 18 sugar mills in Sindh belong to Zardari, Omni Group: Firdous Shamim

An investigation was conducted on the eight sugar mills of Omni Group owned by Anwar Majeed and his four sons Abdul Ghani Majeed, Nimr Majeed, Mustafa Zulqarnain Majeed and Ali Kamal Majeed.

The investigation revealed that out of Rs728.18 million subsidy granted to the eight sugar mills of Omni Group, an amount of Rs346 million has been allegedly misappropriated by the accused in connivance with their senior employees by showing their low paid staff as sugarcane growers.