GUJRAT: The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) has arrested a patwari and his private assistant for tampering with official record, depriving an expatriate of a piece of land worth millions of rupees located in Jandanwala village of Kharian tehsil.

A team led by ACE Circle Officer Fazal Ahmed Surra arrested patwari Abdul Qayyum and his private assistant Qaiser Shahzad after a probe into a case registered by the anti-graft body back in August 2016 found them guilty.

The complainant, Ijaz Ahmed, who had been residing in United Kingdom for the last four decades, had lodged a complaint with Punjab chief minister against the patwari and some other revenue officials, accusing them of tampering with official record and depriving him of six kanals worth millions of rupees, during the computerisation of the land record in Gujrat district.

The complainant had alleged that the officials had forged the land record in the periodical register updated in 2010-11 which was later incorporated into the computerised as well as manual record in his absence from the country.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2019