No mercy: IHC denies bail for five accused in land scam

Housing society staffers accused of illegally selling someone else’s land.

ISLAMABAD:

The Industrial Area police arrested five officials of a private housing society after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) rejected their bail applications on Tuesday. The accused were involved in a land fraud case.

Bail for the five men, all staffers of the National Institute of Electronic Employees Cooperative Society (NIEECS), was rejected by IHC Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, following which the police arrested them outside the court building.

The arrested men include NIEECS President Muhammad Aslam, Vice President Maqbool Minhas, Secretary Javed Altaf Sheikh, Executive Member Saeeduzman and Research Officer Muhammad Sadiq Malik.

The industrial area police had registered a first information report (FIR) against them on March 13, 2013 for their involvement in a land fraud case. According to the FIR, the officers had illegally sold Muhammad Haqbab’s land by tampering with the documents.

The human rights cell of Supreme Court (SC) took up Haqbab’s application at the time and later directed Islamabad Chief Commissioner Jawad Paul to conduct an inquiry and submit a report. A report compiled by the Industrial Area assistant commissioner (AC) was submitted in January. It found all the accused guilty.

Following this, the accused had filed an unsuccessful bail application with the IHC on Tuesday. An FIA special court judge had also denied them bail in April 2013.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 12^th, 2014.