October 15, 2003	Wednesday	Sha'aban 18, 1424

KARACHI, Oct 14: Police are waiting for the property documents of the residence of Indian High Commission in Clifton, which has allegedly been sold out to a private individual recently.

City police chief Asad Ashraf Malick told Dawn, “We have asked the foreign office through the provincial home department to ask the Indian High Commission for the titled documents of the property so that further action can be taken.”

Indian government had lodged a complaint with the government of Pakistan to inquire into the reports of illegal sale of Indian High Commission’s residence and take further action, official sources said.

According to police officials, Indian government claimed that Bungalow No. 63 in Clifton was its property, which had been closed since 1992, when the Indian consulate in Karachi ceased to function.

Police officials said that an Indian airline manager Rama Krishna was passing near 63-Clifton a few days back when he noticed some renovation work was being done at the bungalow.

He stopped there and asked the people as to who had been ordered for renovation. He was told that the bungalow was purchased by Baqar Naqvi from Ghulam Hussain Jeeva.

Mr Krishna reported the matter to police and asked them to take proper action.

Acting on the application, the police called Baqar Naqvi and asked him for the property documents of the bungalow, the officials said. Mr Naqvi produced the photocopies of documents with the history record of the bungalow since 1945, they added.

Mr Naqvi told the police that he had recently purchased the bungalow from Ghulam Hussain Jeeva for Rs40 million. He told the police that he had paid two million rupees as token money.

The police counter checked the produced documents with the record of the city government, where it was revealed that the documents produced were matched with the record available with the city government’s land department.

However, the police stopped the renovation work at the bungalow till the receipt of the titled documents of the property from the Indian High Commission.

When the police asked Rama Krishna to produce the property documents, he said that he was only looking after the property of the Indian High Commission. Moreover, he told the police that he had reported the matter on behalf of the Indian High Commission while further correspondence in this respect should be made directly with the Commission.

A police official said that the bungalow was not sold for the first time, as it had earlier been sold to a local university a couple of years back. After the university had taken possession of the bungalow, the Indian High Commission came to know about the sale of its property.

The matter was reported to the Clifton police station, as the area had been within the jurisdiction of the Clifton police. An inquiry was started and the sale was proved to be illegal. Four persons were arrested later for fraudulently selling the property.

The official said that if the Indian High Commission produced the titled documents to prove its ownership, a stern action would be taken against the seller and the purchaser as well as the officials of land department.