DUSHANBE, October 19, Asia-Plus - The Prosecutor-General’s Office has instituted criminal proceedings against Marouf Oripov, director general of the company M&P, which operates a chain of supermarkets Orima in Tajikistan, on charges of giving bribe, evading tax payments and selling subquality goods, Sherkhon Salimov, Director of the Agency for State Financial Control and Combating Corruption, announced at a news conference in Dushanbe on October 19.  

“Investigation has established that Oripov was trying to give bribe in an amount of $10,000 to an officer with the State Committee for National Security (GKNB),” the anticorruption kingpin said, noting that they are currently thoroughly checking materials on the charges of evading tax payments and selling subquality goods.  

Oripov is currently being held at the GKNB-run pretrial detention facility.  GKNB had instituted criminal proceedings against Marouf Oripov on charge of bribe giving but later, the case was remitted to the Agency for State Financial Control and Combating Corruption.  Investigation is under way.  

As it had been reported earlier, the M&P top manager was detained in July this year.