KARACHI, June 13: Civil rights campaigner Syed Mohammad Iqbal Kazmi, arrested by police in cases of cheating, was remanded in judicial custody till June 16 by a judicial magistrate at the Malir Cantonment Courts on Wednesday.

He was arrested by a police party at 3.30am on June 12 during a raid at his Korangi residence.

According to police the accused had given bogus cheques to people in different business deals.

A cheque, police said, given to Abdul Jabbar, was for Rs98,000, another for Rs470,000 was given to Hanif Memon and a third one for Rs588,000 to Mohammad Iqbal in 2006, but the cheques were dishonoured and the complainants had lodged cases against him at the Darakhshan and Alfalah police stations about a year ago.

Darakhshan police said he had been absconding since 2006 and used to change his residences frequently in an attempt to avoid arrest. It was stated that the complainants came to know about his residence in Korangi only after the media reported his abduction case a few days back.

Mr Kazmi’s lawyers Naheed Afzaal, Mohammad Atiq Qureshi and Shabana were waiting at the court of the judicial magistrate II, South, Naheed Jabbar, but the police did not produce him there.

In the meantime, it was said that he would be produced before the judicial magistrate, South, Khushi Mohammad. His lawyers and media persons rushed to that court, where they learnt that the JM was on leave.

It was again said that he would be produced before the JM, East, Samina Ghouri, and the media people went there, but police officials there disclosed that he had been produced before a JM in the Cantonment Courts.

Later, his defence counsel Naheed Afzaal told journalists that police were supposed to produce Iqbal Kazmi in the City Courts, but he was produced in the court of JM Abdul Qayyum in the Cantonment Courts, Malir.

“Kazmi’s arrest in these cases is totally illegal as he had neither issued the cheques nor the account belongs to him,” said Mr Naheed, adding that the account was in the name of Haq Nawaz.

He said the police officials were telling lies that the accused had been absconding, and added that if he was involved in such fraud cases and was absconding, then why had police posted security guards at his residence.

He said it was a year-long old case and was not concerned with the accused, adding that he was being punished for the petition he had recently filed in the Sindh High Court over the May 12 violence against major political and government figures and the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) Amendment Ordinance.

His wife Sadia Kazmi, who was present in the City Courts to see him, also rejected the police claims that her husband had absconded. She said the police personnel were in plainclothes when they arrested her husband without producing arrest orders.

“My husband had already filed various petitions in the Sindh High Court against the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation, cellphone towers and Pakistan Railways,” she said, adding that the cases were being processed. She said he remained present in the courts and the issues about the petitions were covered by the media, but nobody, including police, ever asked him to come to the police station.

She said her husband had three other partners, Meera Naz, Abdul Rasheed and Haq Nawaz Gabol. She said Haq Nawaz Gabol was absconding and the rest of his partners were also not arrested which, she said, was a proof that he was arrested with mala fide intentions.

“Despite our repeated efforts, the police avoided to give us a copy of the FIR,” said Sadia Kazmi.