Embezzling funds: Former judge sentenced to five years

Three other suspects on the run

KARACHI: An anti-corruption court sentenced on Saturday a former civil judge to five years imprisonment after convicting him of misappropriating public money around 16 years ago.

Anis Ali Khatri, senior civil judge-VII and rent controller of District East in 1999, was found guilty of embezzling more than Rs1 million, which were deposited with him by the litigants and respondents.

The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) had booked Khatri in the graft case in 2000 after corruption in the rent amount was found during an annual inspection.

Initially, the Khatri had accused court clerk Aslam Khan and another man, Jahangir, of being involved in the embezzlement and maintained his innocence. When the matter was reported to the Sindh High Court, the judge sought time to recover the embezzled amount. He insisted that the matter shall not be referred as a criminal action.

According to the prosecution, the judge deposited Rs250,000 while the clerk, through his friend, submitted Rs75,000 with the authorities in a bid to return the embezzled amount, estimated to be Rs1 million. The judge said the clerk refused to return the remaining amount.

The ACE took around a decade to complete the investigations as the final charge sheet was submitted in October 2010. According to it, the clerk had opened two accounts in different banks: one in his name and the other in a fake enterprise's title.

Jahangir was found as a facilitator in the case. A private bank employee, Nizamuddin, was also found to be involved as he helped Jahangir open an account. The judge's role was confirmed after his signatures were found on all the cheques used for withdrawing the amount from the National Bank's City courts branch.

During the six-year-long trial, the court examined five witnesses, bank statements and other documentary evidences which proved the charges against Khatri, informed special public prosecutor Arif Sitai,  Anti-corruption court judge Gulshan Ara Chandio also imposed a fine of Rs200,000 on Khatri.

The former judge was on bail and did not turn up during the hearing. The anti-corruption judge, however, directed the authorities to arrest him and shift him to prison. The court's clerk, his aide and the bank employee have been on the run throughout the case.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 21^st, 2016.