Ex-EOBI chairman, DG among six acquitted in land scam case for lack of evidence

An anti-corruption court on Wednesday acquitted former Employees Old-Age Benefit Institution chairman Zafar Iqbal Gondal, former director general (investment) of EOBI Wahid Khursheed Kunwar, and four others in a 2013 case pertaining to a land purchase scam.

Then top EOBI officials, along with purported owners of disputed land retired colonel Ali Asad Mirza, his wife Nighat Mirza and their daughter Maham Asad, and Hazoor Bux Naeem, official of a company who evaluated the land, had been charged with criminal breach of trust, forgery and wrongful gain by purchasing four-acres of land near Karachi airport at a very exorbitant rate.

The accused moved an application before the judge of the Special Federal Anti-Corruption Court-I, Dr Shabana Waheed, under Section 265-K of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), seeking their acquittal for lack of evidence.

After hearing arguments, the judge announced her order and allowed the application, according to defence counsel Raj Ali Wahid Kunwar. Section 265-K empowers a trial court to acquit an accused at any stage of the proceedings if the court concludes that there is no probability of conviction based on the evidence presented or likely to be presented during the trial.

The counsel contended that there was no evidence to prove the charges of kickbacks allegedly received by EOBI officials in the purchase of the subject land, adding that the prosecution also failed to place on record any evidence of the alleged overvaluation of the land. He said there was no probability of conviction of the accused in the present case, requesting the judge to acquit them for want of evidence.

According to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), the management of EOBI dishonestly with criminal intent had purchased four acres of disputed land in Malir from Nighat Asad and Maham Asad at a very exorbitant rate, which was higher than its actual market value.

It claimed that even the piece of the land was not even in the possession of the seller and there were a number of its claimants, adding that the land had no access as it was practically a landlocked plot.

The FIA alleged that the deal was “shady, collusive, maneuvered and manipulated to favour the vendors and for their personal gain”. The FIR was lodged under Sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker merchant or agent), 419 (punishment for cheating by personation), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and 109 (abetment) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 5 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act-II, 1947 at the FIA Commercial Bank Circle, Karachi.