A plea bargain of Rs80 million has been agreed upon by the Former Inspector General of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police Malik Naveed to be paid to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in the weapons scam case for which Naveed has been under NAB’s custody for 55 days.
Naveed was arrested by NAB on November 20 on charges of Rs 1.8 billion fraud in procurement of arms, ammunition and vehicles for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police department.
On his five-day remand expiration, Naveed was presented before accountability court Judge Wilayat Ali Shah Gandapur on Wednesday, where the prosecutor pleaded for a 14-day extension in his physical remand for further investigations.
Naveed’s counsels Latif Afridi and Barrister Zahoorul Haq informed the court that he has volunteered to pay Rs80 million as a plea bargain, adding that he should be given under a judicial remand due to his health issues.
Moreover, the counsel of the accused also moved the application for the return of the money in the last hearing.
The NAB prosecutor Lajbar Khan told the court Naveed’s remand under NAB may be extended to additional 14 days, as NAB had yet to form a central executive committee under the NAB chairman to handle the plea bargain deal.
It was revealed earlier in NAB enquiry that a number of KP police officers and officials were allegedly involved in corruption and irregularities in the 2008-09 procurement of weapons for KP police department by violating government rules and thus causing huge loss to the exchequer.
KP’s Police budget officer Javed Khan and the supplier Arshad Majeed have also been under the custody of NAB.
Majeed had turned approver in the case and had told the court about the alleged bribes received by various government functionaries in the case.
Last week, NAB officials made new arrests of Niaz Ali Shah and Raza Ali Khan in relation to the case. Shah has been a close aide of former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti while Khan is a relative of the former CM.