HYDERABAD: A special judge of Anti-Corruption (provincial) on Tuesday extended the remand of former Saeedabad assistant commissioner Mansoor Abbasi and Sindh Bank`s area manager Tabish Shah in the anti-corruption police custody by seven days in the Rs2.3bn scam pertaining to land acquisition for M6 (Sukkur-Hyderabad) project.

Abbasi and Shah were arrested by the Anti-corruption police after rejection of their interim pre-arrest bail last week.

They were remanded in the ACE custody for seven days and on completion of the remand period, they were produced in the court on Tuesday for seeking extension in the remand.

Special prosecutor Mazhar Ali Shah confirmed to Dawn that the remand of the accused was extended by the court, which had already adjourned the case previ-ously to Dec 7, when former Matiari deputy commissioner Adnan Rasheed would be produced in court in a separate M6 scam.

The court had rejected bail of Abbasi following recovery of Rs420m from the AC`s official residence in Saeedabad on an information given by DC Adnan Rasheed.

The ACE had registered FIR No. 5/2022 after a two-member fact finding committee submitted its report to Sindh government regarding alleged embezzlement of funds in the M6 project.

The former Saeedabad AC, Mansoor Abbasi, had withdrawn Rs2.14 billion from Sindh Bank`s Saeedabad branch initially by way of cash for disbursement of money among landowners towards land acquisition.

He had withdrawn the cash even without passing award for land acquisition as mandated under Section 11 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894.