ISLAMABAD: A judicial magistrate, Ahmed Shehzad Gondal, on Saturday handed over 20 officers and employees arrested in a major corruption case involving the Federal Tax Office (FTO) to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on a three-day physical remand.
The FIA produced all 20 suspects in court and sought a 14-day physical remand for interrogation. However, the court approved a three-day remand and directed the FIA to submit progress on the investigation.
The FIA Anti-Corruption Circle, Islamabad, had registered a case against 71 individuals accused of failing to deposit official fees into the government treasury. The agency arrested 20 of them during multiple raids a day earlier.
Among those arrested and presented in court are nine government officials, including four senior auditors and an assistant accounts officer.
According to the FIR, the suspects allegedly embezzled approximately Rs296.5 million by issuing illegal stamp papers, court fees, and foreign bills using 2,638 fake TR-32 challan forms. The accused are alleged to have obtained financial gains without depositing the mandatory fees into the national treasury.
The FIA stated that the suspects misused their official positions and caused substantial losses to the government. The total amount of corruption may rise further, as a forensic audit of FTO Islamabad’s last 10 years is underway to determine the full extent of the financial irregularities.
