FIA arrests accused in Kurri Land Scam

[Salman]

FIA arrests accused in Kurri Land Scam

ISLAMABAD - The story of gross irregularities committed by some officials of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) were once again repeated in the lower courts of the federal capital on Saturday when Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) produced another accused of Kurri Land Scam before the court.
Senior Civil Judge Shahrukh Anjumand heard the case and granted three days physical remand of the accused. The court was informed that several years ago the CDA decided to establish a model village at the place of Kurri village for which it acquired the land of locals which were residing in the village for many years. But after failing to pay compensation to the people from whom land was acquired by the authority, it decided to allot plots to the locals on Build Up Property (BUP) basis. A ten member committee comprising the locals was also constituted to point out the affectees from whom land had been acquired for the said project. But allegedly the committee members with connivance of CDA officials show 4,500 affectees instead of 1,000 as Rs800 million were fixed to give them for compensation. During the survey of Build up Property (BUP) and allotments of residential plots in Kurri Model Village in Zone IV of Islamabad, the CDA officials including former director land Waseem Shamshad on recommendations of said committee members made fake list of names that resulted in the illegal allotment of hundreds of plots, which were intended for Kuri villagers by the CDA, in compensation for their land which the civic body had acquired for developing a model village. After which the FIA arrested several officials of the CDA on finding them guilty in the scam but later all of them were released on bail from Rawalpindi courts.
On Saturday, the FIA produced one of the committee members Mukhtar Ahmad before the court after arresting him in the late hours of Friday. The FIA prosecutor submitted before the court that Mukhtar was the member of that committee, which made recommendations for the allotment of fake plots. A brother of the accused Nadeem told Pakistan Today that Mukhtar was not involved in any irregularity and the FIA had arrested him just to cover its failure in probing the matter despite a lapse of more than two years. He said that his brother was just a member of the ten members committee of the locals which was constituted just to point out the number of people who were residing there since 1968.
However, FIA prosecutor sought physical remand of the accused to probe into the matter. Upon which, Senior Civil Judge Shahrukh Anjumand granted three days physical remand of the accused.