THREE men jailed for embezzling more than BD1.5 million over a two-year period have been acquitted on appeal.
The defendants working for a major contracting and construction company are said to have sold scrap material belonging to the firm and pocketed the money.
A general manager, an operations manager and a quantity surveyor – all Indians – were found guilty of embezzlement, theft and bribery by the Lower Criminal Court in October last year.
They were jailed for five years, three years and two years, respectively.
However, they lodged an appeal at the Supreme Criminal Appeals Court which acquitted them following an expert’s report.
The GDN reported on August 8 last year that the thefts were detected during an audit when the company found that amounts related to remains of excavated materials and other movables sold for large sums of money hadn’t been registered in the company accounts.
An external audit firm looking into fund transfers by the defendants found that the general manager, aged 50, had transferred about BD1.5m to a bank in India in just three years.
The company owner reported the matter to authorities who conducted an investigation and found that the defendants had been embezzling money from the company since 2016.
However, defence lawyer Islam Ghunaim, representing the 50-year-old manager, said the money in his client’s account was his hard-earned cash which he got after working for the company for over 20 years.
Mr Ghunaim requested an expert to give evidence in connection with the case.
“An expert who I requested the court to summon gave evidence supporting our claims that the defendants did not carry out the embezzlement,” he told the GDN.
“The defendants were acquitted of the charges by the Supreme Criminal Appeals Court after the expert submitted his report.
“The defendants were acquitted due to lack of evidence against them and they will not spend any time behind bars.”
The Supreme Criminal Appeals Court also rejected the deportation of the defendants.
noorz@gdn.com.bh
&uuid=(email))