ATTOCK, June 7: An accused who along with a companion had withdrawn Rs8.1 million from the accounts of the Pakistan Ordinance Factory (POF) at the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) here on May 31, was dramatically arrested from Talagang and handed over to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
According to sources, after negotiations with the NBP management, accused Mohammad Sharief was handed over to the NBP by his relatives, which after preliminary inquiry handed him over to the NAB for formal action.
The sources said that after the incident, the management of the NBP Attock had obtained the records of the two accused from the Nadra office with the help of their computerised identity cards, copies of which they had attached with the cheques. The accused were identified as Mustamir Khan, resident of Malakand, NWFP, and Mohammad Sharief, resident of Talagang, Chakwal.
NBP management had approached the relatives of accused Mohammad Sharief at Talagang and with the help of some local influential figures who negotiated for a week, they produced the accused voluntarily to the bank management on Tuesday.
During the preliminary inquiry, the accused stated to be a retired army sepoy, reportedly said that he was totally innocent and did the job on the behest of his employer Mustamir Khan, who had given him a job at monthly salary Rs6,500.
Narrating the details, Mr Sharief said that he met Mr Khan in Islamabad where he was searching a job at the offices of private security agencies.
Quoting Mr Sharief, the sources said that Mr Khan gave Mr Sharief the job of a guard at his fictional construction project but did not gave him his contact numbers and asked to meet him at the canteen of the District Headquarter Hospital Attock.
On May 31, Mr Khan reportedly invited him at the canteen and handed him over a cheque of Rs1.75 million. “After drawing the amount, he gave me only Rs6,500 and left for his village telling me to wait for further directions,” Sharief reportedly told the NBP inquiry team.
NBP Attock Chief Manager Malik Akhtar, while talking to this scribe, conformed that after preliminary statement, accused Sharief was handed over to the NAB authorities.
He said the Attock police refused to entertain the case saying that bank fraud cases fall in the jurisdiction of the NAB. He said hectic efforts were being made to arrest the second accused, Mustamir Khan.