Ring Road scam: Former Rawalpindi commissioner seeks bail

LAHORE: Former commissioner of Rawalpindi Captain (retd) Muhammad Mahmood has approached an anti-corruption court seeking post-arrest bail in a case pertaining to the Ring Road scam.

After a preliminary hearing of the bail plea, the court directed the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) to submit the complete record of the case on next hearing on August 6.

The incarcerated former commissioner filed the bail plea through his lawyer, stating that he had never been involved in corrupt practices. The case was aimed to persecute him, he added.

He alleged that he was being subjected to vengeful action for not obeying political bigwigs and termed a fact-finding committee formed to look into the scam illegal.

The former bureaucrat pleaded with the court to order his release him on bail.

A team of Punjab’s Anti-Corruption Establishment had last month arrested the ex-Rawalpindi commissioner and chairman land acquisition Waseem Tabish over their alleged role in the Ring Road scam.

ACE Director General Gohar Nafees while confirming the arrests during a presser and said that Waseem Tabish purchased properties after the scam while an audit of the assets of Captain (retd) Muhammad Mahmood was currently being investigated.

The anti-corruption official said that they examined 21,000 documents to conclude their investigations and it emerged that the total cost of the project was raised to Rs60 billion after a change in the alignment of the Ring Road project.