Anti-Corruption court to hear plea of bureaucrat booked for taking bribe

Through a middleman, the accused offered Ajit Kumar a job at the FIA as an ASI against the payment of Rs1.6 million.

KARACHI: The provincial anti-corruption court, Karachi, is due to hear on Thursday the bail plea of a bureaucrat, booked for allegedly taking a bribe against a job offer, after a federal court refused to entertain the application.

Altafur Rehman Bhugio, a deputy director at the provincial law department, was held by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on allegations of fraud.

According to the complainant, Bakhat Mal, the accused through a middleman, identified as Arif Ali, had offered his son, Ajit Kumar, a job at the FIA as an ASI against the payment of Rs1.6 million. An amount of Rs0.2 million was paid through cheque as advance.

For the remaining amount, the accused was given a crossed cheque which was conditioned to be deposited after the hiring. The complainant claimed that neither was the job given nor was the advance amount returned.

The accused, through his counsel, had moved an application seeking bail under Section 497 of the Code of Criminal Procedure in the Federal Anti-Corruption Court-I on Wednesday. During the hearing, the opponent argued that the court had no jurisdiction to hear the bail application as the case was with the provincial government.

After hearing both sides, the judge, Muhammad Azeem, observed that the defence side should approach the proper platform to submit the bail application.

The plea was then transferred to the provincial court, after which the incharge judge of the court, Ahmed Saba, issued notices to parties for arguments.