CHAGHCHARAN (PAN): A local court on Thursday jailed three education officials, including a senior official, in an embezzlement case in western Ghor province, a judge said.
Muhammad Naeem Farogh, the provincial education director, was jailed for three years for stealing 440 bags of wheat in connivance with a local shop owner. The bags were provided to the province by the World Food Programme (WFP).
Farogh, who has been acquitted by a primary court earlier this month, got the sentence after the case was reopened against him and two of his others accomplices in the second instance court, said chief of the court, Muhammad Daud Bakhtyari.
He added the two others, Haji Ghulam Tofan and Abdul Waahid, were awarded two years of imprisonment.
But Abdul Qadir, the shop owner, was acquitted due to lack of evidence against him, said the judge, who hoped the case would serve as a deterrent to other people in whose hands foreign assistance has been entrusted.
However, Farogh denied the charges, saying he was not present in the province when the incident of stealing bags happened. "I was in Herat to attend a seminar at that time," he said. He said he would move the Supreme Court against the verdict.
Residents welcomed the court's verdict and demanded graft-tainted officials should be brought to justice.
A shop owner, Muhammad Naeem, said such decisions would help the state restore its trust in masses.
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