GUJRAT: The volume of an alleged financial scam in the Gujrat Municipal Corporation has risen to around Rs93 million from the initial amount of Rs40 million as the Anti-Corporation Establishment (ACE) made two more arrests in the case on Wednesday.

Three MC officials, including finance officer Rauf Ashraf Warraich and deputy auditor Aamir Majeed Warraich, are already in the district jail on judicial remand.

Gujranwala ACE circle officer Rana Aftab detained two senior officials of the Bank of Punjab (Gujrat), including area manager Ahsan Shah and main branch manager Malik Irfan, during the course on investigation on Wednesday.

Former and incumbent MC chief officers Malik Ibrar and Khalid Daad Gara, respectively, recorded their statements before the Gujranwala ACE director.

ACE says two bank officials arrested

Another Gujrat MC former CO Fiaz Warraich did not appear before the investigation team despite being summoned by the ACE.

The ACE had initially booked eight officials, including former CO Malik Ibrar who is still serving in Gujrat district council, a female officer of BoP and six officials of MC in the Rs40m scam on Nov 8.

One of the suspects, Majid Rasheed, a data entry operator who had earlier recorded his confessional statement during the probe, has reportedly fled the country and settled somewhere abroad. His travel history showed he visited Turkey several times during the last one year.

ACE Director Amjad Shahzad told Dawn that as per the initial complaint, the matter was limited to three cheques for Rs40m but further investigation had revealed that a sum of Rs93.6m had been transferred into the business accounts in the name of salaried staff through at least 16 cheques between July 2023 and October 2024.

He said same practice had been made in the year 2021 in the Gujrat MC due to which the scope of investigation was being widened.

He said the BoP staff was accused of transferring the amounts without matching the signatures from bank record and did not even respond to the alert automatically generated by the bank system in such shabby transactions.

The ACE, he said, had sent the signatures for forensic analysis to Punjab Forensic Science Agency (PFSA) for further evidence into the case.

He said last three-year record of MC was being investigated by the ACE.

Meanwhile, four of the nominated suspects in the case are on bail before arrest until Dec 10 whereas the ACE investigation team is yet to complete its findings regarding the role of CO Ibrar and other COs in the case.

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2024