RAHIM YAR KHAN: An man allegedly involved in a Rs400 million scam, targeting local businessmen, was arrested by police and presented in a court that sent him on a judicial remand on Friday. Some of the victims, mostly related to fertilizer, sugar and oil seed cake trade, told journalists that they had invested huge amounts with a local grain market trader, Asif Mehmood, who suddenly went missing in September, with his mobile phone powered off. Former chairmen Municipal Committee (MC) and newly elected executive member of the Rahim Yar Khan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RYKCCI), Abdul Latif Bhatti, said that he had invested Rs30m in a joint business with Mehmood, but in August the last, he suddenly claimed that he had gone bankrupt. Bhatti said that two other executive members of RYKCCI -- Riazur Rehman and Zafar Yasin -- along with dozens of other businessmen, had also invested almost Rs400 to Rs500m with Mehmood. He further said that a former MNA was also deprived of his money by the scammer, but the lawmaker, due to his influence, managed to get a bungalow and a car in compensation.
He said Mehmood was very influential and was backed by some political and business figures. A prominent local whole seller, Kafayat Ullah, said that he had sold different products to Mehmood worth Rs73m, who paid him through a bank cheque, that got bounced. He said many other businessmen also fell victim to the scam, adding that Mehmood owed Rs67m to Sharafat Ali, Rs35m to Ajaz Rasool, Rs40m to Tayyab Shehzad, Rs60m to Sharafat Hundel and Rs10 million to Anwaar Sindhu. He said there are many other persons who were scammed by Mehmood, but they don’t want to be named for personal reasons. Kafayat Ullah said that after hectic efforts, he had succeeded in getting registered an FIR (No 1114/24) against the suspect with City A division police on November 29, 2024, and police finally arrested Mehmood. He said that a prominent industrialist had assured many affected businessmen in a meeting with in September last at Sadiqabad that he would help them get their amounts back from Mehmood, but to no avail. It is fourth such scam surfacing in RYK district. In 2017, a Rs1 billion scam surfaced, in May 2018, three brothers, owning a car showroom, fled with Rs4 billion of investors and in May 2024 a sugar broker disappeared with the invested money.
(Daily Dawn)
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