KARACHI, June 6: The Sindh High Court granted bail on Friday to an accused standing trial for defrauding two girls by manipulating their admission to the Sindh Medical College on fake documents.

Accused Naseeruddin Turk was contacted by Sehrish and Ayesha through his aunt, Mst Nabila, principal of the Iqra Public School, Moro, Naushehro Feroz, for admission to the SMC as they could not secure enough marks to make it to the merit list. Turk allegedly fabricated admission documents, including bank challans for payment of fees, and the two girls started attending classes in the SMC. He charged Rs1.1 million from the two girls. They were, however, told by the college authorities after about seven months of their admission that their documents have been found to have been fake after scrutiny.

Both the girl students were expelled from the college and they approached the Federal Investigation Agency for registration of a case against Turk. The FIA crime circle booked him and arrested him earlier in January. The charge-sheet against the accused was submitted to a special court for offences in banks, which commenced the trial and dismissed his plea for bail.

The accused moved the high court for bail and his counsel, Adnan Karim, argued before a division bench comprising Justices Rana M. Shamim and Ghulam Dastgir A. Shahani that neither the FIA nor the banking court had any jurisdiction to proceed in the case. No bank or government official was involved in the offence and the dispute was civil in nature. The complainant girls themselves solicited illegal help and were accessory to the crime as beneficiaries. There was no complaint of fraud in a bank to empower the banking court to assume jurisdiction.

The bench observed that the case was one further inquiry and admitted the accused to bail against security deposit of Rs500,000 and a surety amounting to Rs600,000 to the satisfaction of the SHC nazir.

The bench allowed bail to bank clerk Mohammad Qasim Lakho in a case involving embezzlement of Rs900,000 in the sum of Rs 500,000. In builder and developer Syed Mohsin Ali’s plea for bail before arrest, the bench issued a notice to the National Accountability Bureau for June 13. The accused has developed housing colonies in Kotri and Dadu.

Appeal admitted