QUETTA: The FIA has arrested five Levies Force officials, including a senior officer, on the charge of embezzling huge amounts of Saudi riyals, seized from two people allegedly running an illegal hundi business, officials said on Wednesday.

The FIA officials said that the risaldar-major of Balochistan Levies, in charge of the Levies checkpoint in Noshki, last week arrested two people running the hundi business and recovered one million riyals. But when the Levies officials handed over the accused to the FIA, they informed the agency that only 100,000 riyals were recovered.

During the investigation, the accused told FIA officials that Levies personnel had in fact recovered 1m riyals from them at the time of the arrest. The FIA officials investigated the matter and found the version to be correct.

In view of an inquiry report, the FIA arrested the Levies officer and four other officials. They were produced before a judicial magistrate, who remanded them in FIA custody for five days.

Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2023