KARACHI: An anti-corruption court has sentenced an official of the provincial education department to 10-year imprisonment in a case pertaining to forgery and corruption.

Idrees Bughio, a suspen­ded education supervisor, posted in Jamshed Town, Karachi, was charged with trying to get his job reinstated through fake orders and bribe.

According to prosecution, the accused submitted a letter, dated March 29, 2016, reg­arding reinstatement of his job, to the taluka education officer, who got it verified from director, schools and edu­cation (elementary, secondary and higher education), where it was found to be bogus. On the orders of the dir­e­ctor, the TEO lodged a complaint with the provincial Anti-Corruption Establi­shment.

During the trial, the investigating officer Inspector Imtiaz Ahmed Banday of the ACE failed to submit a final charge sheet in court.

Subsequently, the court treated the interim charge sheet as final and indicted the accused, who pleaded not guilty and opted to contest.

The judge noted in the order that during the proceedings the accused denied the allegations, but he neither got himself examined on oath, as required under Sect­ion 340 of the Criminal Proc­e­dure Code (CrPC), nor produced any evidence in his defence. He further noted that the prosecution successfully pro­v­ed its case against the accused without any reasonable doubt.

Judge Iqbal Hussain Maitlo sentenced Idrees Bughio to three-years rigorous imprisonment for committing an offence under Section 420 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and imposed a fine of Rs10,000.

He further sentenced him to another three-year imprisonment for the offence under Sections 468 and 471 of the PPC and a fine of Rs10,000.

In addition, the court also awarded him four-year impri­s­onment and Rs20,000 fine for the offence under Section 5(2) of the Prevention of Cor­r­u­ption Act, 1947. All the sentences will run concurrently.

The court cancelled bail of the accused, who was taken into custody and sent to prison to serve out the sentences.

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2018