Extortion: Bails of Ahad Tower’s owners dismissed

The accused owners of Ahad Tower had filed petitions for pre-arrest bails in five fraud cases registered against them.

LAHORE:

Additional District and Sessions Judge Mohammad Arshad Ali on Saturday dismissed the pre-arrest bails of Abdul Ahad Malik, his wife Riffat Ahad Malik and son Yousaf Ahad Malik in five fraud cases.

The accused owners of the Ahad Tower had filed petitions for pre-arrest bails in five cases registered against them by the Garden Town police under Sections 420 (cheating and dishonesty), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating) and 471 (using as genuine forged documents) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Amir Saeed, counsel for the petitioners, said they were innocent and had been wrongly implicated in bogus fraud cases. He said that according to an agreement, plaza shops were to be handed over to buyers on completion of construction.

He said it was mentioned in the agreement that the owners would not be responsible for any delay in handing over the shops caused by circumstances beyond their control like a natural calamity. He said the Supreme Court had stopped the construction, so the owners could not hand over shops according to the schedule. He said his clients had been wrongly charged with fraud.

The prosecution opposed the bail petitions, contending that the petitioners sold shops they did not own.

The judge noted the petitioners had been held guilty by the investigator and had failed to point out any mala fide by complainants or the police.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 18^th, 2012.