HYDERABAD: An inspector was arrested and two senior food officials as well as all other accused in a Rs1.46bn bardana (gunny bags) fled the court of the special anti-corruption judge (provincial) on Thursday when their pleas for pre-arrest bail were rejected.

Fifteen applicants, including an acting deputy director and the district food controller of Sanghar, Ali Asghar Naich and Munawar Hussain Arain, respectively, had sought pre-arrest bail in the 2018 scam through Advocate Farhad Ali Abro. The lawyer also represented another six private persons.

All the accused were booked for allegedly misappropriating bardana meant for distribution among wheat growers.

According to the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE), the accused were involved in the Rs1.46bn bardana. It had registered six cases pertaining to the stocks provided for distribution among growers in six talukas of Sanghar district.

A number of private persons, including some landowners who were also booked in the FIRs had filed applications for bail applications which were rejected by the court.

Earlier, Advocate Abro contended that gunny bags were available in Sanghar and the required accounts-related sheets were made available to the ACE. He said that payments were made and counting of gunny bags was also done accordingly.

ACE officials present on the court premises tried to arrest the accused soon after rejection of the bail applications. However, only one food inspector, whose name could not be ascertained, could be arrested. ACE sources said that they wanted to arrest Ali Asghar Naich, Munawar Arain and an assistant food director.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2019