Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Tuesday arrested Ghazan Hoti, brother of former KPK chief minister in a police weapons scam from court’s premises after non-confirmation of his bail before arrest by the Peshawar High Court.
Former inspector general of police (IGP) Malik Naveed is already in the judicial lock-up. As per statement of approver-turned-contractor of the case, Arshad Majeed, Ghazan Hoti had allegedly taken kickbacks to the tune of Rs 195 million in the cover of multi-billion public procurement of weapons, equipments and vehicles to enable the KPK Police department to counter the unabated law and order situation in the province.
This development comes as a major development in the finalisation of investigations of the weapons scam.
The court also rejected the bail applications of the former IGP Malik Naveed and Raza Ali Khan, brother-in-law of Ghazan Hoti.
The KP NAB on receipt of many complaints had authorised an inquiry against the KPK police officers and others for alleged embezzlement in procurement of weapons, equipment and vehicles in 2008-09-10 causing huge losses to the state exchequer. An amount of over Rs 7 billion was released by Government of KPK for the purpose.
During inquiry, it was revealed that gross violation of procurement rules were committed by the purchase committee in awarding tenders to favourite contractors who had no previous experience of supplying such items and for which payments were made in advance. Huge amountsb commission and bribery were involved in these contracts.
A formal reference in the weapon scam worth Rs 2.03 billion has already been filed against the ex-IGP and 9 other senior serving and retired police officers including influential private persons in the Peshawar Accountability Court.