Rs7 billion weapons scam: Suspect handed 10-year sentence

Akhtar Muhammad was accused of taking bribes to close enquiry

PESHAWAR:

After lingering in court for over three years, the first prison sentence in the Rs7 billion weapons scam case was announced by an accountability court on Saturday. The case pertains to corruption in a weapons and equipment procurement deal for the provincial police and several high-profile people have been named in it.

In a hearing on Saturday, accountability court judge Tariq Yousafzai sentenced Akhtar Muhammad, a suspect in the multi-billion rupees case, to ten years in jail and imposed a fine of Rs34.5 million.

The sentence was announced after National Accountability Bureau Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa proved its case against Akhtar Muhammad for taking kickbacks in the deal.

NAB suspects Rs2.3 billion were embezzled from the Rs7 billion contract.

Prosecutor Daniyal Asad Chamkani informed the court that NAB arrested Akhtar from Rawalpindi, Punjab for taking Rs34.5 million as a bribe from contractor Arshad Majeed, promising to use his links in NAB to close the enquiry under way in the weapons scam.

According to Chamkani, during the enquiry, the bureau found millions in Akhtar’s personal bank account. “During interrogation, Akhtar admitted he had received Rs34.5 million from the supplier Arshad Majeed and out of that he paid Rs4.5 million to Arshad Chishti for using his links to close the enquiry,” said the lawyer.

Majeed transferred the money to Akhtar from his own account in a Rawalpindi-based bank. Subsequently, when Majeed became an approver in the case, he made these revelations in his statement recorded under Section 164 of Criminal Procedure Code before judicial magistrate Muhammad Ilyas in June 2013.

Chamkani further said the bureau then launched an enquiry against Akhtar and found he had a large sum of money. NAB also managed to track down the other suspect who also received kickbacks to put an end to the enquiry. Arshad Chisti was arrested from Rawalpindi on August 27, 2014 for taking Rs4.5 million from Akhtar in bribes.

The court then sentenced Akhtar to ten years in jail and fined him.

His bail application had been dismissed by the Peshawar High Court on September, 2014.

Meanwhile, Chisti was acquitted by the accountability court last week because sufficient evidence had not been produced in the court and bureau had also been unable to find the bribe money in his personal account.

In the mix

High-profile people including former inspector general of police Malik Naveed Khan, former chief minister’s brother Ghazan Hoti and his relative Raza Ali Khan have earlier been arrested in this case.

Naveed’s bail application has been dismissed twice by the PHC and Supreme Court, while Khan paid Rs224.4 million under the plea bargain system. Ghazan was acquitted in May after sufficient evidence was not produced against him in the case.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 7^th, 2015.