PESHAWAR: An accountability court on Friday acquitted Ameer Ghazan Hoti, the younger brother of former chief minister Ameer Haider Hoti, of corruption charges in the case pertaining to procurement of weapons for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police Department.
The Accountability Cour ordered the release of Ameer Ghazan Hoti after accepting his application filed under section 265-K of the CrPC for his acquittal in the weapons scam.On another application of Ameer Ghazan Hoti, the court directed the Interior Ministry to remove his name from ECL if not required for any other reason.
The court also accepted the plea bargain of Raza Ali Khan, brother-in-law of Ameer Ghazan Hoti after payment of Rs224.25 million to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). Raza Ali has already been released on bail by the Peshawar High Court.
In the four-page order, it was stated that the Senior Investigation Officer, NAB Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, recorded his statement in which the NAB authorities didn’t make any objection to the acceptance of the application filed by Ameer Ghazan Hoti.
Ameer Ghazan Hoti was arrested on April 2014 for his alleged involvement in the purchase of substandard weapons for the police during 2008 and 2009. He was accused of taking Rs195 million in kickbacks from the arms contractor Arshad Majeed. Ameer Ghazan Hoti denied the charges and claimed that he had no role in the purchase of weapons.
On the basis of the judicial statement of Arshad Majeed, a private contractor and supplier of the substandard weapons who turned approver in the case, the NAB charged Ameer Ghazan Hoti and Raza Ali in the scam.
The NAB accused Raza Ali of receiving Rs198 million from Arshad Majeed, who got most of the contracts of weapons’ procurement. Raza Ali had allegedly kept Rs3 million and handed over Rs195 million to Ameer Ghazan Hoti.
Qazi Jawad Ihsanullah, Omar Farooq Adam and Ibrahim Khan, the lawyers for Ameer Ghazan Hoti and Raza Ali, submitted before the
bench that the NAB had already accepted the plea bargain offered by Raza Ali in which he was returning the money taken from Arshad Majeed with 15 percent operation charges.
They lawyers argued that the plea bargain of Raza Ali and his decision to return the money along with 15 percent operation charges to NAB showed that Ameer Ghazan Hoti was innocent as he didn’t take any money from anyone and was merely the victim of allegations against him.
The court fixed May 22 for framing charges against the remaining accused, including former inspector general of police Malik Naveed Khan and others facing trial in the multi-billion weapons procurement scam.