GUJRAT: The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) claims to have recovered Rs15 million in the Rs16.7 million scam involving the officials of Gujrat district jail and accounts office.
The ACE had booked the then jail accounts officer Sohail Arshad, assistant accounts officer of the district accounts office Javed Hussain and a few other officials of both the departments on Oct 3, 2018 for allegedly embezzling Rs16.7m during 2015-17.
ACE Gujrat Inspector Fazal Ahmed Surra, who had been investigating the arrested suspects, had so far recovered Rs15m of the total embezzled amount.
An ACE official said that the main suspect, Arshad, was accused of withdrawing salaries of some sacked jail officials as well as from other heads, as he was originally a junior clerk, but was given the charge of accounts branch with the blessings of the then jail administration. Some officials of the district accounts office abetted him in the crime.
It is learnt that Rs4m was recovered from the salaries of some jail officials, while most of the amount was recovered from Arshad. According to the investigation so far, he had allegedly purchased properties in the name of his close family members during the period of this scam.
On the other hand, the ACE director general has also approved re-investigation into the scam in the light of statements of the arrested suspects. Some senior officials of the then jail administration as well as the accounts office could also be questioned now.
Meanwhile, the Gujrat ACE was investigating another case of fraud of around Rs15m in the market committee. Some commission agents of the vegetable market had filed a written complaint against a former administrator of the committee, Zulfiqar Aslam, and former mayor Haji Nasir Mahmood.
The complainants accused the former administrator of fraudulently withdrawing a huge amount from them in the name of establishing a new vegetable market in 2011-12.
However, sources in the ACE told Dawn that so far the complainants could not provide sufficient evidence to prove their claims since the amount was not embezzled from the official account of the market committee. The complainants have also exonerated former mayor Mahmood of the charges by submitting a written statement to the investigation team.
Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2019