LAHORE – The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) arrested seven people on Monday for fraudulent withdrawal of money from Punjab Accountant General Office (AGO) masquerading as officials of district police and patrolling police. A case was registered in Anarkali Police Station against Uzair Asghar on the application of Punjab AGO Accounts Officer Muhammad Khalid Farooq that three payments worth Rs 15, 232,042 were transferred to the accused’s account by falsely showing him as police sub inspector (SI).
Police arrested Asghar who named accomplices Shaukat Ali, Tajamal Hussain, Muhammad Ali, Shoaib Sardar, Mahmood Ahmad, Kashif Iqbal, Imran Shah, Sajawal Ashraf, Gulfam Rasool Khan, Muhammad Adnan, Sajjad Ashraf and Muhammad Ahmad. Police claimed large sums of money in their accounts with the help of the Assistant Accounts Officer and Pay-roll Processing Officer Robinson Paul.
Farooq said Muhammad Ahmad, Ghulam Rasool Khan, Muhammad Shakeel and Muhammad Waseem were falsely shown as police SI, police assistant SI and highway patrolling police officials. He said Muhammad Ahmad withdrew Rs 15,232,042, Ghulam Rasool Khan withdrew Rs 520,182 whereas Muhammad Shakeel and Muhammad withdrew Rs 21,456,988 fraudulently from the AGO in the last year.
After the initial investigations, Anarakli police transferred the case to the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) which referred the case to the Punjab NAB for further investigations. NAB arrested the suspects Shaukat Ali, Muhammad Ali, Shoaib Sardar, Kashif Iqbal, Imran Shah, Sajawal Ashraf and Gulfam Rasool Khan and took them to accountability court to get their physical remand. The court handed over the accused to NAB on physical remand till March 28 after hearing the prosecutor’s arguments.
