KARACHI, Sept 26: Judge Qaiser Iqbal of the Accountability Court No. 1 ordered on Friday release of an accused in a corruption reference after he returned the embezzled money.

The judge accepted the plea-bargain of accused Mohammed Tahir Siddiqui, former general manager of the defunct Prudential Commercial Bank Limited, who returned Rs1 million.

The former chairman of the defunct bank, Rasheedullah Yaqoob, a co-accused, was declared absconder in the case, investigated by FIA investigator Faqir Mohammed.

According to the charge, the accused opened an account (No. 26956-380) with the PCBL on October 30, 1997 in a fictitious name.

The copy of the national identity card of one of the employee, Abdul Razzak Shaikh, was used for opening the account in the fictitious name of Ghulam Razzak.

They allegedly made fraudulent transactions through this account and misappropriated a total of Rs45.23257 million.