HYDERABAD: Director General (Finance & Cooperation) of Agriculture Department Imdad Memon, a BS-20 officer, and six other accused were arrested after the pre-arrest bail they were granted earlier was not confirmed by Sindh High Court on Tuesday.

They had appeared before the SHC division bench comprising Justice Amjad Ali Sahito and Justice Khadim Hussain Soomro for the confirmation of their bail.

However, their interim bail order was recalled and they were arrested by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on the court’s premises.

The accused are facing a NAB reference pertaining to alleged misappropriation of Rs1.2bn meant for the procurement of spare parts of bulldozers.

According to NAB Prosecutor Jangu Khan, DG Imdad Memon, contractors Anoop Kumar, Shafi Mohammad and Mohammad Iqbal; Nazeer Bhutto, an official of Hyderabad’s District Accounts Office; and bank cashiers Gul Mohammad and Qadir Bux, were arrested in court as soon as the short order was pronounced by the bench.

Accused escorted to Nara jail as SHC dismisses plea for confirmation of pre-arrest bail

The bench dismissed the bail through the order with reasons to be recorded later.

The accused were shifted to the Nara jail, he added.

The prosecutor said that there are 15 accused named in the reference filed in the accountability court.

According to the reference, the Rs1.2bn fund was misappropriated through fake vouchers issued to dummy companies. The accused were granted pre-arrested bail during the October 24 hearing of their plea in the Sindh High Court.

According to NAB, its investigation had revealed that Imdad Memon was involved in misappropriation of millions of rupees during his tenure as director in the Agricultural Engineering and Water Management (AEWM) department.

He had approved fake refund bills of Rs250m in favour of private contractors which were paid from pension funds by officers of Hyderabad District Accounts Office (DAO) in connivance with Imdad Memon, NAB claimed.

The investigation showed that most bills were deposited in the official accounts of Director AE&WM from where the amounts were withdrawn by cheques signed by him. Around Rs1.2bn was withdrawn from this account. Imdad Memon’s personal bank accounts were credited with millions of rupees coming from private contractors’ accounts.

According to NAB, money trail of payments shows that vouchers were deposited in accounts of dummy companies and returned to the accounts of agriculture department and then withdrawn.

The NAB investigation also revealed that the agriculture department maintained an account in a private bank which had credit transactions of Rs1.2bn. Banking record of proprietors of companies shows that their accounts were credited with millions of rupees coming from government funds. Further, the accused were beneficiaries of pension payments in the instant matter, NAB said.

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2024