ISLAMABAD: A local court on Thursday handed over custody of four officials of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

The FIA had booked 10 CDA officials on the charge of fraudulently allotting a plot in I-11.

Sources said out of the 10, the agency arrested four officials and produced them before a court which sent them on a four-day remand.

They said before registering the FIR in April, 2021, the FIA conducted an inquiry in which it transpired that the officials had fraudulently allotted a plot in I-11/2. According to the FIR, Plot No 1701, size 25x40, was fraudulently allotted in lieu of another plot in I-10/1.

“During inquiry proceedings it has been established that the whole file of said plot was prepared/constructed in back dates. All the processes/procedures adopted in CDA was fraudulent, bogus and with mala fide intentions for pecuniary advantages,” read the FIR.

The FIR said role of deputy director Irfan Ahmed, former deputy director general Abdul Salam Shah and other employees of CDA and private persons will be determined during course of the investigation.

The sources said FIRs will also be registered against CDA officials in coming weeks as seven plots were allotted fraudulently, which were pointed out by CDA’s security directorate.

“Out of seven, FIR is registered against one fraudulent plot,” said a source.

The scam surfaced in August last year when the security directorate of the CDA confiscated files of seven plots minutes before their transfer from the One-Window Operation Centre of the civic agency.

Later, the security directorate conducted an investigation and reached the conclusion that the files were bogus. The CDA then referred the case to FIA.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2021