KARACHI: An accountability court on Friday extended till April 28 remand of a suspect, Ramzan Solangi, personal secretary to the provincial secretary of local government, in a graft case.

The National Accountability Bureau staff arrested Ramzan Solangi on Wednesday for allegedly collecting monthly bribes from district municipal councils, union councils and various local government entities.

He was arrested on the information provided by another suspect, Javed Qamar, an alleged frontman of a former district administrator.

The investigating officer produced the suspect before the administrative judge of the accountability courts and informed that on a lead provided by Solangi Rs31.5m, including foreign currency, prize bonds worth Rs1,843,000, 100 tolas of gold, gold ornaments and assets with certain documents were recovered from his residence in Garden.

During the initial probe, the IO claimed that it transpired that the suspect had been collecting millions of rupees as monthly bribes from various departmental heads.

Furthermore, he said that Solangi had been running a gang of such individuals who were actively involved in working for influential persons for misappropriating funds of the local government department and their distribution.

The IO said one-day remand of Solangi in NAB custody had expired and sought extension in his physical custody for further interrogation to complete the investigation.

The court extended his physical remand till April 28 and directed the IO to produce the suspect at the next hearing with a report on progress in investigation.

Indictment of ‘quack’

A judicial magistrate provided on Friday copies of documentary evidence to a woman, said to be a quack, and fixed April 27 for indictment.

Police said Ayesha was arrested in the gynaecology department of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre on March 12 for fraudulently working as a doctor, adding that she was clad in a doctor’s coat at the time of arrest.

The prosecution said that she had illegally been working as a doctor at the JPMC for around a year.

It further added that the suspect was only a matriculate and even lacked a certificate of lady health visitor.

The prosecution suspected that she might be linked to a gang involved in kidnapping newborns from the hospital.

However, the defence lawyer contended that the suspect was not pretending to be a doctor, but she had been working as a personal assistant to two doctors of the JPMC for the past six to seven months.

A case was registered against the suspect under Sections 170 (pretending to be a public servant) and 419 (punishment for cheating by impersonation) of the Pakistan Penal Code on a complaint of the JMPC security in-charge at the women’s police station in Saddar.

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2018