MULTAN: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Multan is carrying out investigation into Rs363m Vehari police scam allegedly at a snail’s pace while it looks reluctant to arrest Vehari’s former district police officers (DPOs) despite a passage of almost two years since filing of the report, Dawn has learnt.

On May 25, 2016, the additional inspector general police (finance and welfare) had filed a complaint with NAB regarding embezzlement of Rs363m in the Vehari District Police Office from 2008 to 2013.

NAB divided the inquiry into two parts, separately covering tenures of 2008-2013 and 2012-2013, allegedly to accommodate the influential accused while violating the Section 17(d) of National Accountability Ordinance 1999 which stated that if offence was committed over a span of several years, the accused would be charged and tried in one trial.

An interim reference (No 2/17) was submitted before the court on April 20, 2017 against two accused, Vehari district account office Deputy Accountant Shahid Ali Qureshi and AIG finance office Lahore’s data entry operator Muhammad Imran, after the both accused were arrested by NAB though nine accused were mentioned in the reference and they included former Vehari DPOs Syed Ali Nasir Rizvi, Shakir Hussain Dawar and Shariq Kamal Siddiqi, former District Accounts Officers Khalid Farooq and Muhammad Iqbal Anjam, Sub-Inspector Saeed Ahmad and DPO Office Accountant Abdul Sattar who was already murdered.

While sparing the remaining seven accused, particularly the DPOs who were drawing and disbursing officers (DDO), investigating officer (IO) Saeed Ahmad Shaikh, in his report, stated incriminating evidence against the remaining accused, including the DPOs, was being collected and the record was being verified in depth by the experts. This happened despite the fact that Section 24 of National Accountability Ordinance 1999 states “the accused (if already not arrested) shall be arrested at any stage of inquiry and investigation”.

“Investigation is under process and final report will be submitted in due course of time,” the IO concluded.

A source said warrants of arrest should have been issued for all the accused and not only officials of the lower rank.

On Dec 19, a supplementary reference was filed by IO Mohsin Haroon who removed the name of the late accountant and included two new names, Constable Abdul Ghafoor and DSP legal Muhammad Qadeer Anwar, alleging that Anwar was delegated signatory powers as the DDO by the former DPOs Rizvi and Dawar but despite having no such authority in tenure of DPO Siddiqi, Anwar continued signing of bills and cheques in connivance with co-accused.

The IO alleged that Constable Ghafoor had carried out several cash withdrawals/deposits in the bank accounts of the deceased accountant and other accused. He claimed that Rs1.7m were remitted online by the constable to an another constable, Ghulam Mohiuddin, who was attached with DPO Rizvi, Rs1.5m to the wife of DPO Dawar while an amount of Rs21.1m was deposited in an account of the accused (Ghafoor) at MCB Ghala Mandi during 2010 to 2013. The IO, however, did not submit the bank statements of the accused.

It is pertinent to mention that the defense counsel submitted the bank statement of the said account in the court according to which the total transaction of from Aug 2010 to 2013 is Rs13.3m which was Rs11m less ac compared to the amount claimed by the IO.

The IO stated that the evidences against remaining accused persons were being collected.

On Jan 22, another interim reference (1-M/2018) in connection with tenure of 2012-13 was filed against only one accused, DSP Legal Tanveer Amjad, who was delegated DDO powers by the then DPOs, namely Ashir Hamid, Akhtar Umer Hayat Lalika and Syed Ali Nasir Rizvi.

Contrary to the previous interim reference, IO Mohsin Haroon neither declared the DPOs as accused nor mentioned the names of other accused although he stated that the DSP along with other accused caused loss of Rs988m to the national exchequer.

Sources alleged that the rules were being violated and unnecessary interim references were being filed in the case to accommodate the influential accused, particularly the DPOs, and the same was the reason for delaying tactics in the submission of final reference.

Now three accused, namely DSPs Amjad and Anwar and Constable Ghafoor, are in custody while Khalid Farooq, Deputy Accountant Shahid Ali, Data Entry Operator Imran and ASI Saeed are on bail.

NAB Multan Deputy Director Media Asim Raza said investigation against the senior officers was within the purview of the NAB chairman and those accused against whom the bureau found evidence were being arrested.

“The matter to arrest the senior officers has been discussed and it has been sent (to NAB headquarters) for approval,” he said.

Mr Raza said there was no limit on filing supplementary references as the case is huge and evidence was being collected and verified with time while court had also agreed to submit interim and supplementary references.

“There is no law for and against it,” he claimed.

Published in Dawn, March 5th, 2018