PESHAWAR: The Anti-Corruption Court Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Monday confirmed the interim bail of six officials nominated in an alleged multi-million-rupee embezzlement case related to the construction of the Hayatabad Sports Complex.The order was passed by Anti-Corruption Court Judge Asif Rasheed.
During the hearing, the accused were represented by Barrister Yaseen Raza and Advocate Babar Khan Yousafzai.The court was informed that Ahmad Ali, Asad Ali, Fareed Khan, Niamat and others were serving as deputy director and in other key positions during the construction of the Hayatabad Sports Complex in 2015.
It was stated that during the inspection and audit of the project in 2016, an alleged embezzlement of more than Rs26 million was identified, following which a technical report was prepared and an FIR was registered against the officials.
The counsel for the accused argued that parts of the technical report submitted by the prosecution were missing, maintaining that this had been their stance from the very beginning. The court was told that according to audits conducted in 2016, 2018 and 2019, the alleged loss did not even amount to Rs150,000.
The defence contended that one technical report related to the case was missing and no official record of it was available. It was argued that the project still existed and even if it was inspected again after 10 years.
No objection was expressed as all relevant project documents were in the custody of the prosecution, leaving no chance of tampering.The lawyers also maintained that all the accused were government officials with no risk of absconding.
