KARACHI, Feb 12: An anti-corruption court on Saturday sentenced a former secretary of the land utilisation department and two others to a total of four years in prison in a 1994 land scam case.

The court found then secretary Ramesh Udeshi, Rehana Minaj and Shahid Ahmed Khan guilty of allotting government land in 1994 at a throwaway price by violating rules.

Sources said Mr Udeshi is one of the members of the Sindh Public Service Commission.

Judge Rashida Asad of the special anti-corruption court in Karachi pronounced her verdict after recording the evidence of witnesses and final arguments from both sides.

The court sentenced the convicts to two years in prison each under the Pakistan Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947.

The judge also imposed a fine of Rs25,000 on each convict in each offence and in case of default, they would have to undergo an additional three-month imprisonment.

However, the court ruled that both sentences would run concurrently.

The verdict said that the prosecution established the charges against the accused by examining witnesses and placing ample documentary evidence in court.

It appeared that the recommendation for allotment of land was made in a collusive manner and blind eyes, the verdict said, adding that the attitude of accused Rehana and Shahid was also visible from the fact that while seeking bail they conceded amalgamation of land with the KDA housing society.

The court further observed that the then secretary had concealed facts as he neither placed the proper value of land before the competent authority nor informed it about the ban on such allotments.

Earlier, in their final arguments the defence lawyers contended that their clients were innocent as the land in question was allotted after fulfilling all the legal requirements and no illegality was committed during the entire process.

The public prosecutor, Arif Sitai, submitted that the prosecution examined five witnesses and they testified against the accused and the documentary evidence also corroborated their testimonies.

He said that the prosecution proved that the accused had unlawfully allotted the government land at a throwaway price.

According to the prosecution, the then administrator of the KDA cooperative housing society filed a complaint that in October 1994 the promoters of the Rehana ladies multi-purpose cooperative society limited namely Rehana Minaj and Shahid Ahmed Khan in connivance with the then secretary land utilisation had unlawfully allotted 20 acres of government land to the society, which was not entitled to such allotment. Moreover, the allotment was made at a rate of Rs30,000 per acre while the original value of the land in question was between Rs250,000 and 300,000 per acre, it added.

A case (FIR 27/2001) was registered under Sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant or by banker merchant or agent), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 5 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947 at the Anti-Corruption Establishment police station.

All the accused were on bail and taken into custody from court promises after the pronouncement of the judgment. They were remanded to prison to serve out their sentences.