PESHAWAR: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has arrested three of its officials, including an assistant director, for allegedly embezzling funds and misusing authority.
An official of the FIA confirmed the arrest of the three officials, who are under custody at the agency’s provincial headquarters in Hayatabad in Peshawar.
They are Assistant Director Shahid Ilyas and subordinate staffers Mir Samad and Akhtar Hayat.
As per the First Information Report (FIR) registered on Thursday, a fact-finding inquiry had been entrusted to Assistant Director Shahid Ilyas in 2016.
It said the said inquiry officer conducted raid along with FIA officials on December 24 last year in Barawal Banda, Upper Dir district and recovered an amount of Rs11,00,000 and 44,500 Saudi riyals from Muhammad Yaqoob, owner of Master Ghee Corporation at Barawal and arrested him.
They later left for Peshawar along with the accused Muhammad Yaqoob showing the same as recovery of stolen property from the accused in the Daily Diary register of Police Station Barawal.
It was further stated in the FIR that Assistant Director Shahid Ilyas, Mir Samad and Akhtar Hayat, instead of bringing the accused to FIA Police Station in Peshawar, released him near Talash in Lower Dir and threatened him not to tell about this occurrence to anybody.
The report said he misappropriated the recovered amount by misusing his official position. “Later, Muhammad Yaqoob went to Barawal Police Station and reported this incident to the cops,” the FIR stated.
After a few days, Muhammad Yaqoob visited the FIA office in Hayatabad and handed over a further amount of Rs200,000 and 19,500 Saudi riyals to Shahid Ilyas on his demand.
However, it said neither the amount was deposited nor any written report submitted to the higher officials by Shahid Ilyas.
Later, it said, Muhammad Yaqoob submitted written affidavit against Shahid Ilyas and other members of the FIA raiding team for extorting a huge amount of money from him. “Thus the accused Shahid Ilyas, with the active connivance and collaboration of subordinate staff, recovered a huge amount of Rs13,00,000 and 64,000 Saudi riyals, but instead of showing the said amount on record, he and his subordinates abused their official position and misused their authority and embezzled the amount,” the FIR stated. They were charged under sections 409, 217, 109 PPC read with 5(2) of 1947 PC Act.
