Not the easy way out: Court rejects ‘corrupt’ revenue official’s plea bargain

Physical remand of three accused extended in Rs400m PHA land acquisition case.

PESHAWAR:

An accountability court rejected a plea bargain agreement on Saturday reached between National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and accused revenue official Saeed Khan who offered to voluntarily pay Rs22.38 million for his release.

The accused was arrested on April 3 on charges of possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. On April 23, he was produced before the court of judge Muhammad Ibrahim Khan where the court was informed that the NAB chairman had accepted Saeed’s plea bargain application and thus needed the approval of the court. However, the court was not satisfied and instead sent the accused to jail.

The court was informed that the accused had accumulated a large amount of wealth during his posting as a gardawar in the revenue department and had the support of influential people in the government.

The accused is suspected of being involved in the transfer of many officials and NAB has declared him a ‘king of corruption’. He was recruited in the revenue department around two decades ago and served as a patwari in key areas of the city and was promoted as gardawar in 2012.

On Friday, the court refused to issue his release order and instead granted a day’s judicial remand. NAB was directed to produce all records of the accused, including the plea bargain agreement the next day (Saturday).

On Saturday, judge Tariq Yousafzai rejected Saeed’s plea bargain with NAB and refused to issue his release orders. The accused was sent to Central Prison Peshawar for an initial period of 14 days.

PHA embezzlement case

In a separate case, judge Muhammad Ibrahim Khan extended the physical remand of former director general of the Provincial Housing Authority (PHA) Javed Khan, land acquisition collector Naveed Qadar and their alleged front man Muhammad Asif for five days in the Rs400 million embezzlement case.

The accused were produced before the court where prosecutor Aftab Khan informed that the accused were arrested for misappropriating large sums on the pretext of acquiring land for a PHA scheme at Moza Darwaza, Nathiagali which caused the national exchequer a loss of Rs400 million.

The court was further informed that PHA also initiated the scheme without obtaining a no-objection certificate from the forest department and the Galiyat Development Authority and without preparing a feasibility report, which is a prerequisite.

NAB claimed that after the expiry of the five-day physical remand of the accused, they required more time for the completion of its investigation.The court sent the accused into NAB’s physical custody for five more days despite being asked to grant a 14-day remand.

A statement issued earlier by NAB stated that Rs261 million was supposed to be the amount given to landowners in the case, however, the accused awarded Rs400 million to Muhammad Asif, who was not the actual owner.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 4^th, 2014.