KARACHI: A sessions court on Saturday dismissed a bail application filed by Adil Zaman, the main suspect in a case pertaining to murder of TV anchorperson Mureed Abbas and another individual over shady investments worth billions of rupees.

Police had caught and booked Atif Zaman and his brother, Adil Zaman, for allegedly killing his two business partners — Mureed Abbas and Khizar Hayat — in the Khayaban-i-Bukhari area of Defence on the night of July 9, 2019.

Additional District and Sessions Judge (South) Faraz Ahmed Chandio on Saturday pronounced his verdict, which was earlier reserved, on the bail applications of Atif Zaman in the cases pertaining to the double murder using a licensed weapon.

The judge dismissed the bail application in the main murder case, observing that it did not make out a case for the grant of post-arrest bail at the present stage of the trial.

He also dismissed the bail application filed by Adil Zaman in the second case pertaining to unauthorised usage of the licensed weapon in the commissioning of the double murder. Atif Zaman has also been indicted in the case.

The charge has already been framed in the present cases against Atif Zaman and Adil Zaman in the main case which is fixed for recording evidence on July 29.

Adil Zaman has been declared absconder since he obtained bail from the Sindh High Court.

Earlier, the defence counsel Ajab Khan Khattak argued in court that Atif Zaman was innocent and had not committed the offence but the police along with some private individuals framed him in the present case with mala fide intentions for ulterior motives due to personal enmity.

He contended that the applicant was picked up by the law enforcement agencies and kept in detention before booking him in the present cases after a delay of one day, which made the case of the prosecution highly doubtful.

He maintained that the cases required further inquiries, thus the applicant was entitled to the concession of post-arrest bail since he had been behind bars for almost one year.

The counsel pointed out that the alleged murders had taken place on July 10, 2019 and the applicant was arrested the same day but till date no further progress had been made in the trial, thus the applicant was also entitled to bail on the grounds of the statute of delay.

The court was informed that the applicant had never been convicted in the past in any case nor was he a hardened criminal.

The counsel undertook that there was no chance that the applicant would abscond or attempt to tamper with the evidence, if he was granted bail.

Advocate Jibran Nasir, who represented Mureed Abbas’s wife Sidra Abbas, opposed the bail plea and prayed to court to dismiss the same for lacking merits.

Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2021