Two main accused in RR scam sent on remand

The main accused were handed over to the Anti-Corruption Establishment

LAHORE:

A magisterial court handed over two accused former officials to the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) Punjab in the Rawalpindi Ring Road corruption case.

The quarters concerned produced the accused, former Rawalpindi commissioner Muhammad Mehmood and former Land Acquisition Collector Waseem Ali Tabish, before a magisterial court seeking their physical remand on the plea that the accused are nominated in the first information report (FIR), an investigation is yet be completed while recovery is also yet to be made from them.

Meanwhile, the counsel for the accused former commissioner implored the court that the fact-finding committee had given a clean chit to him and no fraud had been proved on the part of his client.

He argued that his client had also presented all relevant record of his assets and that his client fully cooperated with the police during the investigation, adding that the plea of the quarter concerned for further physical remand is not justified.

The counsel for the accused told the court that an FIR was registered, violating the Lahore High Court's (LHC) order. The LHC had ordered the anti-corruption department to intimate the accused 15 days before initiating an inquiry or making an arrest.

The counsel raised a question that anti-corruption officials be asked whether they were complying with the LHC orders.

The ACE prosecutor told the court that the department was complying with the LHC order and the accused served notice as directed by the court. He told the court that the accused made changes in the Ring Road alignment after 2018 and extended the length from 18 to 36 kilometres.

When the magistrate asked whether NAB was investigating this matter, the ACE prosecutor replied he did not know. He added that the ACE case is about corruption the accused had done in the matter. He contended that the land acquisition collector's jurisdiction was confined to Rawalpindi but he gave the approval to acquire land in Attock, owing to which the prices of the adjacent societies increased.

During the case proceedings, the judicial magistrate, Yousaf Abdur Rehman, restrained media from the coverage of court proceedings and directed them to leave the courtroom.

It is worth mentioning that for the purpose of alignment in Rawalpindi Ring Road, neither approval was sought from concerned quarters nor any no objection certificates were obtained from the Capital Development Authority and the National Highway Authority. The design of the project was changed and new interchanges were added while the length of the road was increased from 22 to 68 kilometres.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 16^th, 2021.