Indictment put off as SBCA ex-director, wife file plea against trial’s start

An accountability court on Wednesday adjourned the indictment of a former Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) official and his spouse in a Rs239 million graft case till October 22 as the defendants moved an application against the start of the trial.

The accountability court-III issued a notice to the prosecution to submit their arguments in October on the application against the framing of charges on the accused. The court also ordered the delivery of a fresh set of prosecution documents as they complained previous ones were unreadable.

The National Accountability Bureau had filed a reference against Adil Umer Siddiqui, who had served as a director at the SBCA, and his wife Syeda Nusrat Adil for accumulating wealth to the tune of Rs239,910,609 beyond known sources of income.

The investigation against Siddiqui was launched in May last year, according to the anti-graft watchdog’s investigating officer Ghulam Abbas, finding him to be in possession of illegal wealth maintained in Benami accounts at different banks.

The IO said that the total assets of Siddiqui and his family stood at Rs239,910,609, which he could not justify during the investigation and made claims that the excess income was earned through his and his wife’s companies as well as accumulated in gifts.

The reference read that being a government servant Siddiqui had accumulated assets, including properties at home and abroad as well as expensive vehicles, disproportionate to his known sources of income and had maintained seven Benami accounts with credits in millions of rupees.

The IO provided a list of Benami accounts with transactions of millions of rupees in the name of different people, a list of witness statements recorded under Section 161 of the Criminal Procedure Code and a list of the relevant documentary evidence.

The anti-graft watchdog’s reference had been filed under Section 18(g), which deals with cognisance of offences, read with Section 24(b), which deals with arrests, of the National Accountability Ordinance.