Food inspector gets nine years jail term

PESHAWAR: The Special Judge Anti-Corruption, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, on Saturday awarded nine years sentence and fine of Rs700,000 to a food inspector after the prosecution proved case of wheat embezzlement against him.

The Special Judge Anti-Corruption, Ikhtiar Khan awarded the sentence to the Food Grain Inspector Chitral Samiullah in a case referred to the court by the Ehtesab Commission after its abolition. The case pertained to the embezzlement of 9630 bags of wheat worth Rs39596184.Muhammad Khalid, senior public prosecutor for state, contended that the case was first made against the accused including Samiullah and Sher Ali, two Grain Food Inspectors in Chitral, on April 2, 2018 by the Ehtesab Commission Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He pointed out that the case was then referred to the Anti-Corruption Establishment Department, and inquiry was conducted. The prosecutor stated that the accused were the in-charge of various godowns and after physical verification of the godowns it was detected that the accused Samiullah had embezzled 9630 bags of wheat weighing 1094,363 tonnes. He informed the court that the accused was arrested after registering the case. The counsel for the accused contended that the accused was innocent as the wheat bags were not missing when he was in-charge. In the judgment, the judge ruled that the prosecution has proved the allegations of criminal misconduct, misappropriation and embezzlement of wheat bags in question beyond any shadow of doubts. The court convicted Samiullah Khan under section 419 of the Pakistan Penal Code.The judge also convicted him under section 5 (2) of the Prevention Anti-Corruption Act, 1947 for criminal misconduct.