Four bank officers sent to jail for scam

The accused were employees of the National Bank

SUKKUR: Four bank officers of the National Bank of Pakistan were sent to jail on Friday on the charges of embezzling millions of rupees.

Reportedly, an embezzlement worth Rs600 million was detected last year during the audit of the National Bank of Pakistan, branch Pano Akil. After investigation, four officers, grade-II officer Syed Lal Shah, grade-I officer Kifayatullah, grade-I officer Nusrat Hussain Shah and grade-III officer Bashir Ahmed, were found guilty of the crime.

Read: Booked for embezzlement: NAB arrests ex-divisional forest officer

After the registration of the case, the officers were arrested. Later, the accused were given bail by the Sindh High Court (SHC) and they remained on protective bail. However, the bail was cancelled by the SHC last Wednesday, after which the National Accountability Board (NAB) arrested them and produced them in the accountability court in Sukkur on Friday. After the hearing, the court ordered to send the accused to jail. The officers were sent to district jail in Sukkur.

A NAB source said that the case is still under investigation and chances are that the amount embezzled by the officers might cross Rs1 billion.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 11^th, 2015.