KARACHI: A judicial magistrate has sentenced a former bishop to 18 months in prison in a case pertaining to issuing bogus cheques to a private contractor in connection with a Rs120 million community housing project.

Sadiq Daniel, the then Bishop of Diocese of Karachi Church of Pakistan’s Trust, was found guilty of issuing cheques which were dishonoured in 2020.

However, she observed that since the accused was 71 years of age, in mitigating circumstances he was awarded simple imprisonment for 18 months.

Judicial Magistrate (East) Sana Abbas Dashti pronounced her verdict reserved after recording evidence and final arguments from both sides.

The magistrate said that the prosecution had undoubtedly proved the case against Sadiq Daniel for committing an offence punishable under Section 489-F (dishonestly issuing a cheque) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The magistrate cancelled the bail of the priest, who was taken into custody and sent to the prison to serve out the remaining portion of his sentence.

Complainant Abdul Rehman deposed that he met accused persons Sadiq Daniel and Zafar Iqbal in 2019 for launching a housing society project for the Christian community, adding that after the approval from the church members’ council an agreement was executed in the presence of then Bishop Sadiq Daniel.

He added that he had paid Rs120m as surety to the church trust’s general secretary Zafar Iqbal, who issued a receipt of payment and then gave him advance payment cheques in presence of the bishop, but the same were dishonoured and returned by the bank due to insufficient balance in the account.

The judge noted that Sadiq Daniel in his statement, under Section 342 of the Criminal Procedure Code, did not specifically deny issuance of cheques and raised the plea that co-accused Zafar Iqbal delivered his cheques to the complainant.

Prosecutor Hakim Ali Jamali argued that the prosecution proved the charges as the complainant and other prosecution witnesses fully corroborated the contents of the FIR and ingredients of charged offences were attracted to this case.

Defence counsel Imtiaz Ali argued that the complainant failed to produce any proof against his client, as neither issuance of cheque nor dishonest intention was proved by the prosecution.

In the meanwhile, Sadiq Daniel had filed an appeal challenging his conviction before the Sindh High Court, his lawyers said.

Published in Dawn, February 24th, 2023