KARACHI: A special court (offences in banks) has sentenced 10 former employees of the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) to a total of 17 years in prison for using bogus cheques to draw over Rs33 million from accounts in main branch in Thatta in 2010.

Judge Javed Ahmed Keerio found accused Mushtaq Ahmed Soomro, Ghulam Mustafa Khatri, Shahnawaz Shah, Abdul Majeed Memon, Shakeel Ahmed Khatri, Tufail Ahmed Memon, Syed Aftab Ali Shah, Manzoor Ahmed, Aftab Ahmed Memon and Ghulam Haider guilty of the offences under sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), 477-A (falsification of accounts), 109 (abetment) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The court also convicted a private person, Mukhtar Ali Palijo, and sentenced him to four years for the offence of forgery for cheating and three years for using a forged document.

The judge imposed a total fine of over Rs10 million on each accused, while Mukhtar had to pay a total of Rs1.5 million as fine.

“It was a serious banking crime committed by the accused persons and the account of Mukhtar Ali was instrumental to park such amount in his account. His involvement in the commission of offence cannot be ruled out. Evidence of the IO as well as those who had initially investigated the matter provided bulk of documentary evidence relating to his account in which, the accused persons deposited the amount which they subsequently withdrew,” the court observed.

According to the Federal Investigation (FIA), a complaint was registered by the manager of NBP main branch in Thatta, stating that his branch officials fraudulently made “flying entries into bank accounts and withdrew the funds by using bogus cheques”.

The complainant testified before the court that in November 2010, he had informed his high-ups about some irregularities in the affairs of the branch and a team had reached from Lahore to investigate the matter. He submitted that around Rs9.8m was recovered from the culprits involved in the crime.

During the trial, the state prosecutor argued that the story of the prosecution corroborated with the statements of the complainant and all witnesses.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2024