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Friday March 29, 2024

Bail pleas of two bank officials among three suspects dismissed

By Yousuf Katpar
February 05, 2023

A special court (offences in banks) dismissed on Saturday the applications of three suspects seeking post-arrest bail in an alleged Rs3.4 billion scam related to land acquisition for the construction of the M6 (Hyderabad-Sukkur) motorway.

Judge Abdul Karim Ansari rejected the bail pleas moved by Mukhtiar Ali Chandio, manager of the Sindh Bank’s Naushero Feroze branch, Zeeshan Ali Larik, the bank’s cashier, and Muhammad Saood-ul-Haq. The three have been booked and arrested for allegedly colluding with the district’s then deputy commissioner Muhammad Tashfeen Alam to embezzle the funds allocated for the motorway project.

The judge noted that though an interim charge sheet had been filed, the matter was still under investigation. “At this stage when neither the entire material has been collected in the investigation nor the final challan has been submitted by the IO, it would be premature to determine that the case of the applicant/accused calls for further enquiry or otherwise,” he added.

“In view of the above reasons, the bail applications of the accused merit no consideration; hence, the same are hereby dismissed,” the judge ruled.

In December, the investigating officer, Muhammad Zubair Ashraf, submitted an interim charge sheet before the court, stating that an FIR was filed on the complaint of Prakash Lohano, the general manager of the National Highway Authority, who stated that a fact-finding committee, formed by the Sindh government, revealed in a report that the NHA, being the land acquisition agency, disbursed funds amounting to Rs3,618 million to Naushero Feroze’s then deputy commissioner Muhammad Tashfeen Alam, notified as a land acquisition collector, for the purchase of 1,500 acres of land in the district for the M6 project.

But the suspect, in collusion with officials of the Sindh Bank and others, misappropriated the government funds to the tune of Rs3.4 billion during the period between June 2022 and November 2022, he added.

The IO said Tashfeen disbursed the amount through open cheques without issuing notices to khataydars (land owners) and in the absence of the NHA staff in violation of the Land Acquisition Act 1894.

He said that within one month, an amount of Rs3.618 billion was withdrawn from the Sindh Bank’s Naushero Feroze branch despite the fact that the official withdrawal capacity of the branch was Rs10 million per day.

Pointing out the alleged illegalities committed by the DC, the charge sheet said that in many instances, one person was issued cheques and two names were written on a single cheque with different writing in a clear violation of the SOPs, adding that open bearer cheques were issued instead of cross cheques, and inheritance details, in some cases, were written on stamp papers in violation of revenue laws and no cash register and payment ledger was maintained by him.

“As per the bank record, accused Muhammad Tashfeen Alam, the then DC Naushero Feroze, himself wrote 27 letters to the Branch Manager Sindh Bank Naushero Feroze for the arrangement of total amount of Rs3.310 billion in cash, which was withdrawn in 27 days,” it claimed.

The IO said that in most cases, Asghar Jatoi, alleged front man of Tashfeen, was handed over huge cash without biometric verification. Jatoi was involved in the distribution of cheques to people whose lands were to be acquired for the project, he maintained.

During the course of the investigation, he said, the agency found that an amount of Rs296,945,245 was withdrawn in the name of a person, Babloo Ram, through various cheques on different dates. However, the man in a statement before the agency denied to have received the cash and stated that he neither visited the bank nor sent any cheques for the encashment of the amount. The probe further revealed that the CNICs of Babloo as well as other individuals were fraudulently used by Chandio in collusion with operation manager Atta Hussain Sahito and cashier Zeeshan Larik for withdrawal of the amount of Rs2,261,9964,280 from the DC’s account.

The three bank officials, who were arrested in November 2022, disclosed during interrogation that the DC had introduced Jatoi and Rahmatullah Solangi to them as his representatives who would bring the cheques, the IO said, adding that Tashfeen fled to Azerbaijan on November 19, 2019. Following the inquiry, he said an amount of Rs218.6 million was frozen. So far statements of 66 khataydars have been recorded and 376 cheques amounting to Rs1.68 billion issued in the name of the land owners who, however, claimed to have received only Rs340 million through Rs150 cheques.

Suspect Muhammad Saoodul Haq helped DC Tashfeen transfer Rs70 million through the illegal channel of hawala. Tharu Khan Phoro, a revenue official, handed over cheques of meager amounts to them and fraudulently got issued cheques of huge amount under the signature of the then DC.

“All the above named accused persons in collusion, connivance and abetment with each other misappropriated the NHA fund to the tune of Rs3.4 billion and caused a huge loss to the government exchequer,” the IO said.