May 28, 2008	Wednesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 22, 1429

RAWALPINDI, May 27: A special judge (anti-corruption) here on Tuesday sent the owner of Margalla Towers to Adiala Jail on 14-day remand after the police said they had completed their preliminary interrogation.

A sub-inspector (SI) of the Shalimar police requested Special Judge Central Shaukat Ali Sajid to send Ramzan Khokhar to the central prison, saying they did not need his physical custody any more.

Mr Khokhar was arrested on May 14 from the court room after the judge cancelled his pre-arrest bail in connection with a case registered with the Shalimar police station on October 8, 2005, under numerous charges including attempted murder, causing amputation of human organs and injuries, abetment, mischief causing financial loss, framing an incorrect document, concealing criminal design and declaring wrong assets.

Three persons — Mohammad Ramazan Khokhar, his wife Kehkashan Khokhar and Sheikh Abdul Hafeez (an architect) — were held as accused and were last year declared proclaimed offenders by a court. Mr Khokhar returned to the country early this year to face the charges against him.

It is pertinent to mention that 74 people were killed with the Margalla Towers housing 148 residential flats collapsed during the October 8 earthquake.

Meanwhile, the judge directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to submit the complete challan (charge sheet) in a case of extorting money from people to send them abroad and preparing fake documents involving former federal minister for minorities Mushtaq Victor.

FIA authorities took into custody the former minister, an educationist by profession, on March 7 in a case registered under Pakistan Penal Code section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and under Immigration Ordinance 1997 section 17 (unlawful immigration), 18 (to induce someone) and 22 (to extort money on the pretext of sending people out of the country).

The prosecution alleged that Mr Victor sent many people to different countries in Europe showing them his relatives after taking handsome money from them.