Ex-auditor denied bail in Kohistan graft case
PESHAWAR: An accountability court here has rejected bail plea of a former senior auditor of the accountant general’s office charged with facilitating the prime accused in a high-profile case involving the alleged embezzlement of over Rs37 billion in the Upper Kohistan district accounts office. After the completion of arguments by both parties, Judge Kaleem Arshad Khan declared that the accused,…
PESHAWAR - A former senior auditor, Radiullah, has been denied bail in a graft case linked to alleged embezzlement of over Rs37 billion in Upper Kohistan district accounts office. The decision was made by an accountability court after hearing arguments from both sides. Radiullah, a senior auditor at the Accountant General’s Office Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and a member of the audit committee for the Upper Kohistan scandal, was arrested last year along with multiple others by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
NAB special prosecutor Manzoor Alam claimed that Radiullah, by abetting and aiding other co-accused, facilitated unauthorized withdrawals of funds and concealed critical details. The prosecutor argued that Radiullah's silence on the irregularities post-audit enabled the commission of the offence at an exponential loss to the public exchequer.
However, Radiullah's counsel argued that the trial had not yet commenced after a year of his arrest, and there was no possibility of a near future conclusion. The NAB countered this by stating that Radiullah could not be granted bail just because of the delay in completing an inquiry or investigation. Over 40 accused have been arrested in the case, with prime accused Qaiser Iqbal, a former head clerk in the communication and works department, and others accused of illegal withdrawal and misappropriation of funds from contractors' security deposits.
Written by urgent.news from Dawn - Pakistan's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
