KARACHI, Sept 30: An anti-corruption court on Friday sentenced five men, including three officials of the Sindh Katchi Abadi department, to two years in prison in a land scam case.
The court found the five men — Syed Babar Waseem, Adil Abbasi and Mazhar Khan of the Sindh Katchi Abadi department and Malik Habib and Gul Zeb — guilty of instituting fake files of two plots and allotting them to the private accused in 2005.
Judge Rashida Asad of the Special Anti-Corruption Court, Karachi, pronounced her verdict after recording the evidence of witnesses and final arguments from both sides.
The judge also imposed a fine Rs25,000 each and in case of default the convicts would have to undergo an additional three-month imprisonment.
The court in its verdict observed that the files of the property in question produced by the complainant were found to beauthentic while the documents placed by the accused in court were declared forged and the officials of the Katchi Abadi department were also found involved in instituting fake documents and unlawful transfer of property.
Thus, the case of the prosecution was proved against all accused beyond a shadow of a doubt, the verdict said.
According to the prosecution, two plots located in Hijrat Colony were allotted to complainant Abdul Basit by his father, but following his death, his stepbrothers with the help of the officials of the Katchi Abadi department prepared forged files and transferred the property in their names in 2005.
A case (FIR 49/06) was registered under Sections 218 (public servant framing incorrect record or writing intent to save person from punishment or property from forfeiture), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant or by banker,merchant), 423 (dishonest or fraudulent execution of deed of transfer containing false statement of consideration), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 5 (2) of the Prevention of Anti-Corruption Act-II.
The accused were on bail and were taken into custody following the pronouncement of the verdict and sent to prison to serve out their sentence.