GUJRANWALA, May 25: A court reader who was sent on compulsory retirement after a case file went missing 15 years ago was acquitted by an anti-corruption court here on Friday as the ‘lost’ file was found from the record room.

It is learnt that a session’s court sought the record of a case of civil appeal of Husain Muhammad Vs Haji Yasin on October 29, 1988. Court reader Sibtul Hasan received this file and handed it over to an ahalmad (court official) who deposited it with the record room. But the reader could not get his signature. When the file could not be produced in the court on the date of hearing of the case, the judge ordered an inquiry against the reader.

Inquiry officer additional session judge Muhammad Khalid held the reader responsible for misplacing the file in his report filed on January 19, 1992. Reader Sibtul Hasan was compulsorily retired by the authorities concerned who also ordered registration of a case against him.

The Civil Lines police registered a case against him on the charge of stealing court record. Investigating officer SI Younas Bhatti (now an SP) told his officers that the reader had burnt the file and he had found its ashes.

The charge sheet against the accused was submitted in a court after about eight years, on September 5, 2001.

As the court proceedings moved on at snail’s pace, the reader also kept on his efforts to find the file. At last he found it in the record room and informed the court. The court confirmed it from the record keeper and acquitted Sibtul Hasan.

The judge, in his observations, expressed his dismay over the situation.