PESHAWAR: A special anti-corruption court here on Tuesday convicted three officials of provincial food department and sentenced them to seven years rigorous imprisonment with fine of Rs1 million each in a high profile case of misappropriating huge quantity of wheat and empty gunny bags from government storage.

The senior special judge of anti-corruption, Asif Rashid, also ordered the convicts to jointly pay to the public exchequer the principal pecuniary loss to the tune of Rs197.7 million and if not paid voluntarily the same should be recovered by the government as arrears of land revenue.

The recovery so made, the judge ordered, should be credited to the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

After conclusion of trial, the judge pronounced that prosecution proved its case against the three accused persons including storage and enforcement officer, Mohammad Arshad, and assistant food controllers Khalid Khan and Tilla Mohammad (now retired) and they were found guilty of the commission of the offence.

Besides fine of Rs1m each, they will have to pay Rs197.7m to govt

The court, however, acquitted two food grain inspectors, Qazi Junaid Bacha and Mohammad Atif, due to lack of proper evidence against them.

The court also extended benefit of Section 382-B of Code of Criminal Procedure to the convicts, directing that the period already undergone by them in custody during pendency of the trial should be counted in their prison term.

FIR against the accused was registered at anti-corruption police station in Nowshera, on March 3, 2025 under sections 409, 419, 420, 468 and 471 of Pakistan Penal Code and Section 5 (2) of Prevention of Corruption Act.

Senior public prosecutor Fazal Noorani appeared for the state and said that the accused persons were officials of National Reserve Centre (NRC), Azakhel (Nowshera). He said that they were involved in embezzlement of huge amount of Rs197.7 million on account of missing 30,477 wheat bags as well as 3,309 empty gunny bags.

He stated that complainant Khalid Khan, an anti-corruption sub-inspector, learnt about misappropriation of thousands of wheat bags from Azakhel NRC with active connivance of the accused persons, who were deputed there.

He argued that during course of in-depth open inquiry, it surfaced that 30,447 wheat bags as well as 3,309 empty gunny bags were found missing.

He said that as per audit inspection report of Feb 28, 2025, wheat weighing 1730.445 metric tonnes amounting to Rs196.9 as well as 3,309 empty bags amounting to Rs827,250 were found missing that resulted in financial loss to the tune of Rs197.7 million to the exchequer.

Mr Noorani argued that it was evident from the record that the accused persons were actively performing duty at the said NRC and they could not be absolved of the liability of misappropriation.

He said that evidence on record clearly connected the accused persons with the commission of the offence.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2026