PESHAWAR: The National Accountability Bureau, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has filed a reference against six officials of the Abbottabad income tax department with a Peshawar accountability court over fake income tax refunds.

Income tax commissioner Asif Haider, upper division clerk Mohammad Siddique, lower division clerk Ali Afsar, Masoodur Rehman, Jehangir Hussain and Mohammad Haroon are suspected of inflicting Rs83.3 million loss to the kitty by making fake income tax refunds in name of families affected by the 2005 earthquake.

The reference has been filed with the court of judge Ibrahim Khan.

The NAB insisted the six officials had committed a crime and were involved in corruption and corrupt practices, which was punishable under the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999.

It claimed the suspects prepared bogus income tax refund on the pretext of assistance to the earthquake victims and abused authority.

“Through collecting signed cheques from innocent earthquake victims during 2008-09, the six officials embezzled the huge amount of money.”

The NAB had arrested the income tax commissioner on March 24, while the other suspects were taken into custody afterwards.

They remained in the NAB custody for many days before the accountability court sent them to the prison.

Also, the NAB has filed a reference against an arrested deputy superintendent of the police, Rajab Ali, with the same accountability court for possessing Rs14.6 million assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.

The suspect serving in Mardan district was arrested by the NAB on April 18 and had remained in the NAB custody for many days. His petition for bail is pending with the Peshawar High Court.

Over two years ago, the high court had taken notice of his alleged illegal activities and misuse of power and had ordered the start of separate inquiries against him by the NAB and the police.

The NAB claimed that the case of illegal assets of the suspect became known when complaints against him about the alleged illegal detention of innocent people were reported to the high court during his term as the station house officer in Hayatabad area of Peshawar.

The court had ordered the NAB director general to investigate complaints.

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2014