HYDERABAD: An Anti-Corruption Court (ACE) here on Monday extended the physical remand of former Deputy Commissioner Matiari Adnan Rashid for three days after the completion of his initial five days remand.
According to details, a team of ACE produced Rashid before the court in Rs 2.14 billion land acquisition scam and sought a 7-day remand but the court granted only 3-day physical custody for further investigation.
Separately, an Assistant Manager of the Sindh Bank’s branch in Matiari district, Syed Tabish Shah, obtained a 7-day interim bail from Sindh High Court against a surety of Rs 50,000.
Rashid, Shah and former Assistant Commissioner New Saeedabad taluka Mansoor Abbassi have been charged with getting released a sum of Rs 2.14 billion through 438 cheques in bogus ways under the pretext of buying land for M6 Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway.
The ACE has notified a Combined Investigation Team (CIT) to probe the issue and submit a report in 10 days.
Earlier, on November 16, a team of ACE arrested the DC from Matiari while on November 20 three more government servants associated with the former DC Rashid including his secretary, his office’s accountant and driver were rounded up by the establishment.
The team also reportedly took away some documents and CCTV recordings of the DC house.
According to the FIR, lodged on complaint of an ACE official Irfan Ali, the National Highway Authority (NHA) had transferred Rs 4.09 billion, which accumulated to Rs 4.63 billion over a period of time because of the markup on deposit, to the DC’s account for land acquisition.
Rashid, Abbassi and Shah in connivance with some other persons allegedly committed irregularities by releasing Rs 2.14 billion.
They have been booked under sections 468, 467, 420, 409, 34 and 477-A of the Pakistan Penal Code and section 5(2) of the Anti Corruption Act.
On November 13, the Sindh Chief Secretary Sohail Rajput formed an inquiry committee, consisting Additional Finance Secretary Shahmeer Bhutto and Chairman Sindh Public Service Commission Nazeer Ahmed Qureshi to investigate the issue.
The committee in its findings implicated the two revenue and one bank official in its report.
