Bahria Town drag race: Only the driver remains behind bars

All the other accused have obtained bails.

RAWALPINDI:

The court of a magistrate on Thursday denied post-arrest bail to the driver whose out-of-control car led to five deaths during a drag race in Bahria Town last December.

Magistrate Azmatullah Khan rejected the bail plea of Majid Naeem who was driving the car that crushed five men to death in Phase-VIII of the private housing society on December 5, 2010.

Earlier the bail pleas of the accused driver had been dismissed by the trial court, high court and the Supreme Court. He had moved fresh bail plea with the new ground that the additional district and sessions judge (ADSJ) had dropped the charges of murder in the case saying the accused would only be tried for rash driving and accidental deaths.

ADSJ Muhammad Kalim Khan dropped the murder charges on July 23 in the case and referred the case to the court of the magistrate.

Majid Naeem is the only accused in the case still in jail. Adil Naeem, the referee of the race; Waleed Amman, the marketing manager of Bahria Town; Colonel (retd) Muhmmad Rafaqat, the chief security officer of the society; and other employees of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited and NADRA accused in the case have all been given bails. The main accused Sheikh Atif, the organiser of the race, had escaped from the country and the apex court had ordered the investigators to bring him back.

The heirs of the victims have already pardoned the management of the Bahria Town and have received the diyat money.

The investigators in the case in their last report before the court had stated that they could not find any evidence leading to the alleged involvement of Ahmed Ali Riaz son of Malik Riaz Hussain, the owner of the private housing society.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 29^th, 2011.