KARACHI: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) launched a crackdown against sugar mafia and arrested three brokers in in Karachi allegedly involved in speculative pricing.
FIA Corporate Circle conducted a raid and arrested three brokers named Dayaldas, Santosh Kumar and Raj Kumar in Karachi. FIA spokesman said the three were involved in speculative pricing (satta) to artificially hike the price of the commodity.
The spokesman said the suspects used social media forums and fake bank accounts for their activities. They have been involved in the hike in sugar price in the open market.
The FIA has filed two cases against the accused in Karachi under the anti-money laundering law, while the investigation agency is conducting further inquires into the case. The FIA will produce the accused before a court to get their remand for further questioning
The spokesman further said the FIA Commercial Banking Circle had formed an investigation team after reports about the sugar mafia activities for illegal hike in the commodity’s rate in the open market. Deputy Director FIA conducted a raid and arrested the three suspects.
Earlier, the FIA Lahore chapter informed FIA Karachi about 23 persons involved in sugar scam operating in the city. In a letter to FIA chapter in Karachi, the agency had highlighted the role of sugar mafia in illegal hike in price of sugar across the country.
It said that over 20 rupees per kilogram price has been increased illegally in the ongoing month of March causing a loss of Rs110 billion rupees. It added that 23 persons have been affiliated with Pakistan Sugar Group, Sugar Merchants and Sugar Traders Group.
The FIA has frozen over 100 bank accounts of 40 sugar satta agents (speculative pricing manipulators). No arrest has been made so far as the FIA is awaiting results of forensic audit of about three dozen mobile phones and laptop devices recovered from the agents.
According to the FIA, black money is used in the business of speculative pricing and the 10 major sugar groups from Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Hasilpur and Bahawalpur are involved in this crime
The agency had also booked these sugar groups under sections 420, 468, 471 and 109 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), read with sections 3/4 of Anti-Money Laundering Act 2010.
The FIA had detected Rs110 billion earning by the sugar mafia during the last one year through ‘speculative pricing’ and it initiated action against those involved.
