NBP, police officials being probed for Rs33.97m embezzlement
Zulfiqar Ahmad
ISLAMABAD: Lower Chitral District Police Officer (DPO) Iftikhar Shah has launched an investigation against three police officials who allegedly embezzled an amount of Rs33.97 million in connivance with the manager of the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) main branch Chitral.
The DPO confirmed the scam to ChitralToday and said he would not spare anyone involved in it, adding: “I would recover every single penny and have already recovered some of the amount.” He said a three-member investigation team headed by him was probing the matter. “Enough evidence against all the four persons, especially the NBP branch manager, has been gathered,” the DPO said.
According to official documents available with ChitralToday, the three police officials – head constable Fida Hussain, head constable Fazal Rabi and foot constable Muhammad Rahim – in connivance with the NBP Chitral main branch manager Amjad A. Sani allegedly pocketed the Rs33.97 million. The amount totalling 33,979,000 rupees had been received at the bank account of the Lower Chitral police chief in lieu of security provided to the under-construction Lawi hydopower project from 01/7/2021 to 30/06/2022.
From the DPO account, the amount was to be transferred through challans to the government treasury ie the district account office (DAO) account. However, the three policemen and the manager of the NBP Chitral withdrew the whole amount and allegedly embezzled it.
Under the standard operating procedure (SOP), the bank was bound to alert through a phone call the signatory, in this case the DPO, about the withdrawal of the huge amount from the account of the police.
However, the NBP branch manager, according to sources, did not follow the SOP, and after withdrawing the cash issued a receipt with the bank stamp on it (available with ChitralToday) dated February 7, 2023, that was submitted to the district account officer and the DPO offices by the police officials. The receipt later turned out to be fake as the amount was never reconciled at the treasury account.
Interestingly, the three policemen after producing the fake receipt also managed to get clearance from the District Accounts Officer’s office, taking advantage of power outages in the office at that time. The sources said the DAO office had initially okayed the receipt after seeing the bank stamp on it, which later turned out to be fake.
They said this left the DAO office with no option but to report non-reconciliation of the challan to the DPO, who launched an investigation.
When contacted by ChitralToday, the NBP branch manager denied his involvement, saying he needed to consult his legal team to comment on the issue any further.
The three policemen allegedly involved in the scam could not be reached for comments as they did not respond to calls made on their mobile phones.
There is a need to hold a thorough investigation into alleged embezzlement of the huge amount by the policemen in connivance of the bank manager. The report clearly states that the manager completely ignored the SOPs of the bank. I would like to request Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to initiate an inquiry into this mega scandal. The FIA must check the assets of the bank manager as well as the policemen.
This guy (NBP branch manager) has completely tarnished the image of the bank. He should be sacked without any further delay by the bank management. The policemen invloved in the scam should be also terminated from service. At the same time, the then DPO during whose tenure the scam took place should also removed from service, as it happened right under his nose. Either he was too naive or he is hand in gloves with the mafia. A high level judcial inquiry should be ordered into the scam by the finance ministe as well as the NBP president.
Any negligence in this regard will us the people of Chitral with no option but to beleive that everyone at NBP is corrupt to the core from top to bottom. A stich in time saves nine. The NBP must take strict possible action which should be no less than removal of all the accsued invloved in the scam from service.
The Food Department upper Chitral must also be grilled as a similar incident also took place there in 2022. I would like to help ChitralToday’s investigation team if I got to know that they are investigating the scandal. Such incidents of fraud and embezzlement have rendered the heads of we the people of Chitral hang in shame.