Singer moves court to get Rs2.5m cheque

Respondent had been granted bail after he promised to pay up in May.

LAHORE:

Singer Attaullah Khan Niazi Essakhelvi petitioned a judicial magistrate on Wednesday to cancel the bail of a builder who owes him Rs2.5 million. The magistrate issued notice to respondent Abdul Haleem for June 6.

Advocate Muhammad Asif Chattha filed the petition under Section 497(5) of the Criminal Procedure Code seeking cancellation of the bail earlier granted to the respondent on the grounds that he had pledged to pay the petitioner Rs2.5 million by May 14, but had not paid him a single penny. He said the accused had been threatening his client to withdraw the case.

The petitioner said that he had paid the respondent Rs7.6 million to build a one-kanal house, but the builder spent only Rs4.3 million on the house. Muhammad Arshad, son of Abdul Haleem, gave the singer a Rs2.5 million cheque but that cheque was dishonoured by the bank on February 4, 2011. The respondent, on being told the cheque had bounced, issued another cheque, but the bank dishonoured that too on March 7.

The singer then lodged an FIR under Section 489/F of the Pakistan Penal Code on March 10, and the accused was arrested and sent to judicial lock-up. The accused filed a bail plea pledging before the court that he would repay the petitioner within two months. The petitioner agreed and the accused was released on March 14.

The petitioner said that after his release on bail, the respondent had threatened to implicate the singer in false criminal cases to compel him to withdraw his complaint. He asked the court to cancel his bail.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 2^nd, 2011.