MULTAN: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Friday arrested Layyah Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Investigation Muhammad Baqir in a case of financial embezzlement of about Rs213.3 million in the accounts of Punjab Constabulary (PC).

An accountability court handed over 10-day physical remand of the SSP to the bureau.

According to an official handout issued by the NAB, Baqir, who served as superintendent of police/drawing disbursing officer of Battalion 3 Commander, was arrested and will be produced before the accountability court on Saturday (today).

The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) had lodged a first information report (FIR) on Aug 31, 2017 under Section 5(2)47 of the Prevention of Corruption Act and sections 461, 468, 471, 420, 467 and 409 of Pakistan Penal Code against 30 employees of the PC and the district accounts office on the complaint of then Battalion No 3 Commander SSP Mehmoodul Hasan.

The complainant said the suspects prepared fake suspension and subsequent restoration orders of ghost PC employees and transferred salaries of those ‘employees’ into secret accounts by preparing fake bills.

He said a fact-finding team had been constituted that found secret bank accounts created in the name of some employees of Battalion No 3 with the connivance of district accounts office employees.

Fake suspension and subsequent restoration orders of the employees were drafted by entering fictitious dates, and fake salary bills of the duration of suspension prepared by clerk Abdul Jabbar Shah, junior clerks Azam and Rasheed Ahmad, Naib Qasid Munir, Sajjad Pittafi and Arshad.

Hasan said his signatures were forged on the salary bills that were submitted to the district accounts officer with the connivance of accounts staff. He alleged that Naib Qasid Munir, who is in Saudi Arabia for Haj, told him over the phone that everything was done with the connivance of Azam, Pittafi, District Accounts Officer III Bashir Ahmed, Senior Auditor Mudassir Dareshak, Auditor Tahir Bukhari, Shakeel and Adnan of the district accounts office, and the staff was receiving its share.

He further claimed that Azam told him that after preparing the bills with the help of Shakeel and Adnan he handed them over to Dareshak and Bukhari.

Suspects Abdul Jabbar, Azam, Muhammad Ali Shah, Rahim Bakhsh and Zaffar Iqbal were handed over to the ACE by the PC officials on Aug 31, 2017.

A controversy had cropped up between the NAB and ACE over the investigation while a probe was under way by the ACE; the NAB authorities requested the anti-corruption court to the transfer the investigation to the bureau.

The bureau had claimed in a handout that it received a complaint from the Punjab accountant general along with its fact-finding report wherein the complainant had alleged that an embezzlement of Rs213 million was identified at the PC’s accounts office by the active connivance of its employees and bankers concerned.

The case was handed over to the NAB that filed an interim reference with the accountability court.

The NAB authorities claim that the final reference was submitted to the court; however so far the suspects had not been provided copies of the reference.

Complainant SSP Hasan was also a suspect in the case.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2018