KARACHI, Jan 22: Rauf B. Qadri, former chairman of the Banker Equity Limited, was convicted on Tuesday in another corruption reference by an Accountability court, which sentenced him to 12-year rigorous imprisonment on two counts.

Judge Dr Qamarudin Bohra of AC-1, who had earlier convicted the 42-year-old former banker in four other references, sentenced him to a seven-year term for misappropriating BEL’s Rs15.225 million.

A fine equal to the misappropriated amount was also imposed on Mr Qadri, who would have to undergo an additional two years simple imprisonment in case of default on the payment.

The former BEL chief, a chartered accountant from the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountant, was sentenced to a five-year term for “criminal breach of trust”. He was also fined Rs500,000 on the charge and would have to undergo an additional one-year simple imprisonment in case of default.

The judge, however, acquitted co-accused Inam ul Haq, former BEL president, as the prosecution could not establish its case against him.

According to the prosecution, the accused through a stockbroker, Dawood Jan Mohammed, showed fictitious sale and purchase of shares, later sold at a much lower price than they were originally purchased on behalf of BEL.

The difference between the buying and selling price of the shares was Rs15.225 million, which was shown in the books as loss to BEL.

The whole transaction was done by making fake vouchers of sale and purchase of shares in the name of the stockbroker, who issued a cheque for Rs15.175 million to Mr Qadri after deducting Rs50,000 as his commission.

This was the fifth reference (30/2000) against the former BEL chairman, who has so far been sentenced to a total of 63 years in five corruption references, involving the misappropriation of around Rs37.5 million.

All five references (27, 28, 29, 30 and 31 of 2000) against Mr Qadri, arrested on August 31, 1999 in his Financial Trade Centre office, were transferred from the banking court to the AC-1.

The former BEL chief was first convicted in May last year in reference 28/2000, pertaining to the embezzlement of Rs4 million. He was sentenced to a seven-year term with the fine, equivalent to the misappropriated amount.

Later in July last Rauf B. Qadri was sentenced to 12-year imprisonment on two counts in reference 29/2000, which pertained to the misappropriation of Rs15.7 million.

The former banker, who had also served with the Standard Chartered Bank and the City Bank, was then sentenced to 12-year RI in September last in reference 27/2000, involving the embezzlement of Rs1 million.

In November last, the same court sentenced him to a seven-year term in reference 31/2000, which also involved Rs1-million misappropriation.

This was the 24th judgment, pronounced by Judge Bohra since he assumed the charge of the AC-1 in December 1999. There are 14 cases still pending trial before the court.

Following the judgment, Mr Qadri told Dawn that he had become the chairman of the BEL after its privatization in 1996, when the net profit of the concern was only Rs900,000. Later in 1997 BEL’s net profit was over Rs331 million, he said and added that BEL also distributed Rs100-million dividend during the year.

He said he would challenge his fifth conviction in the Sindh High Court, where his four appeals against the trial court’s judgments were already filed. “I am quite hopeful to get justice from the high court,” he said.

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