GUJRAT: The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE), Gujrat circle, on Tuesday arrested three of the five patwaris in a fake domicile case lodged against them in 2018.

The patwaris had been booked by ACE for presenting fake domiciles of Gujrat district for securing the job and a case was lodged against them under sections 420, 468 and 471 of the Pakistan Penal Code. They were later granted bail by a court.

However, the bail of three patwaris -- Maqbool Ahmed, Tahir Mehmood and Faqeer Ahmed -- was cancelled by Gujranwala anti-corruption court, after which the ACE Inspector Rifaat Bhatti arrested them.

An official of Gujrat ACE told Dawn that the arrested patwaris had been recruited against the posts created for doing settlement work of land record in the district back in 2003-04.

Later, a local, Ehsanul Haq, filed a complaint with the ACE against five patwaris, including these three, accusing them of submitting fake domiciles with their job applications, seeking legal action against them.

The ACE, after an initial probe, had approved the registration of a case against the patwaris.

Published in Dawn, December 8th, 2021