ISLAMABAD, July 27: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry on Wednesday asked lawyers to help curb crime in the society by discouraging criminals. He made this observation while hearing a fraud case involving four accused who allegedly deprived an 82-year-old woman, Ms Saleem Akhtar, of Rs1.2 million through a fake property deal.

The case was heard by a three-member Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice M. Javed Buttar and Justice Sayed Saeed Ashhad.

According to the FIR registered with Industrial Area police station, Raja Shaukat Ali introduced two persons to the woman regarding sale of a house in I-8/4 sector.

Chaudhry Mohammad Akram Advocate appeared before the court for the petitioner, Ms Saleem Akhtar, while Sardar Mohammad Siddique represented the state.

Inspector Islamabad Police Bashir Ahmed Khan informed the court about the status of the case and amount recovered from the accused.

The two accused, Sardar Saleem and Abid, contacted the woman and finalized the deal for Rs3 million. Both the accused accompanied by the woman went to a bank in I-10 sector and took an amount of Rs1,200,000 as token money.

On the way to the district courts for stamp papers, Sardar Saleem snatched the entire amount and pushed the woman out of the taxi.

The police registered a case against the four accused and arrested them.

The police also recovered Rs270,000 from Sardar Saleem and Mushtaq Qureshi. Two accused Mushtaq and Abid are on bail while Sardar Saleem is in jail. However, the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi Bench has granted bail to Raja Shaukat Ali.

Ms Saleem Akhtar has filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the grant of bail to Raja Shaukat.

The bench told Raja Shaukat to give back the amount and cooperate with the woman, otherwise his bail would be cancelled.

The bench gave the accused time till July 28 to initiate negotiation process with the petitioner Ms Saleem Akhtar, warning that otherwise the bail of Raja Shaukat would be cancelled.

The bench directed counsels of both the parties to ensure appearance of the petitioner as well as the accused on Thursday. —APP