KARACHI, Jan 10: Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed of the Sindh High Court on Monday extended till Jan 31 the interim bail granted to the owner of a private security agency whose guards were involved in a 40-million-rupee robbery
at a money dealer's firm last November.
The judge was informed that the police officer investigating the offence had gone upcountry on a tip to apprehend the guards and the case record could not be produced. The owner of International Money Exchange, Zafar Paracha, accompanied him.
The guards, posted by Maverick Security Agency at the exchange, robbed Mr Paracha of Rs40 million in assorted currency at gunpoint. They escaped after the robbery and have not been traced. Their identity cards and addresses were found fake.
The agency's owner, Col Asghar Feroz, secured interim bail in the sum of Rs1 million on Nov 11. Supervisor Ghulam Haider, who ran the agency in the owner's absence, went missing when ordered to be surrendered to the police and is not traceable. Advocate Khwaja Naveed Ahmed appeared for the applicant.
REMAND: Justice Amir Hani Muslim, administrative judge for the Karachi division anti-terrorism courts, remanded Mohammad Tariq in police custody till Jan 15.
Tariq is accused of kidnapping and murdering his six-year-old nephew, Mohammad Siddique. He kidnapped the boy in front of his house in the Korangi area on Jan 1 and demanded Rs1.5 million in ransom for his release.
The police arrested Tariq on Jan 8 near a Korangi public call office after tracing his whereabouts from the phone calls made by him. He is alleged to have told the police that when his brother, the boy's father, failed to pay ransom, he killed Siddique by strangulating him and buried his body in an empty plot.
BAIL PLEA REJECTED: Justice Azizullah M. Memon of the Sindh High Court on Monday dismissed the bail application of a man in a killing case, adds PPI. Syed Ali Shah was arrested on the charge of killing his wife, Rahima, in the Quaidabad area.
The court observed that the circumstantial evidence prima facie indicated that the victim was strangled and "the applicant, at this stage, does not appear to have made out any case for bail. However, as and when material witnesses are examined, the applicant will be at liberty to repeat fresh bail application." Meanwhile, the same court dismissed the bail plea of a man in a murder case with direction to the trial court to examine five witnesses within four months.
Ghulam Haider, along with others, is charged with killing Qadir Bakhsh in the Salehpat area of Sukkur on Aug 20, 2000. The applicant's counsel desired to withdraw the application and sought direction for the trial court to examine the witnesses at the earliest.
The court also dismissed the bail application of two bandits in a dacoity case with the direction to the trial court to examine the prosecution witnesses within three months. Mujahid alias Zahid and Nabi Zar Khan were arrested on the charge of committing dacoity in a shop in the limits of Frere police station on Feb 10, 2003.
