KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday granted bail to a detained businessman, Salman Farooqi, and the co-accused, Awais Hashmi, in a case pertaining to an assault on a motorcyclist in the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) after the other side did not oppose it.

However, the SHC also ruled that if the applicants/suspects misused the bail concession during trial proceedings, the trial court would be competent to cancel their bail without making any reference to the high court.

Salman Farooqi and Awais Hashmi were booked and arrested for allegedly assaulting a motorcyclist, who was accompanied by his sister, on Khayaban-i-Ittehad a couple of weeks ago following a minor accident with a Mercedes car the suspects were travelling in.

The suspects through their lawyers had approached the SHC after a sessions court had dismissed their post-arrest bail applications.

After hearing arguments from the lawyers for applicants, additional prosecutor general and the complainant as well as perusal of material available on record, a single-judge bench of SHC headed by Justice Arshad Hussain Khan granted a bail against a surety bond of Rs100,000 each.

The bench in its order noted that the victim, Dheeraj, and complainant Mohammad Saleem had filed affidavits raising no objection for grant of bail to the suspects and their case called for further inquiry under Section 297(2) of CrPC.

It also observed that the suspects were neither previous convicts nor hardened criminals and they were behind the bars since their arrest and were no more required for any investigation. The prosecution had also not claimed any exceptional circumstances which could justify keeping them in jail for an indefinite period pending determination of their guilt.

Consequently, while taking into consideration the affidavits of no objection filed by the complainant and victim, the bench said that the suspects were admitted to post-arrest bail.

It further stated that any observation made in this order was tentative in nature and must not affect the determination of the facts at the trial or influence the trial court in reaching its decision on the merits of the case.

“It is, however, made clear that in the event if, during proceedings, the applicant/accused misuse the bail, then the trial court would be competent to cancel their bail without making any reference to this court”, it concluded.

The police had registered a case against the suspects and arrested them after a video of the incident had gone viral on social media. Complainant Muhammad Saleem was present at the scene when the incident took place and later reported the matter to the police.

A FIR was registered at the Gizri police station under Sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 342 (wrongful confinement), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506-B (threat to cause death or grievous hurt) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2025