RAWALPINDI, Dec 20: Former minister for minorities’ affairs Mushtaq Victor on Saturday filed an application with a court seeking acquittal in an immigration fraud case saying the case had been registered against him without any evidence.

The minister was booked on charges of depriving some people of their money on the pretext of sending them to Europe

Special Judge Central (SJC) Shaukat Ali Sajid has fixed December 23 the next hearing date in the application filed under section 265-K of Criminal procedure code.

Syed Zulfiqar Abbas the lawyer of the applicant told Dawn that there was no incriminating record against his client as Federal Investigation Agency had registered the case of fraud and preparing fake documents on the report of the embassy of a European country in Islamabad.

He said the FIA had not received any complaint against Victor that he had taken money for sending some body to European country.

The court was to formally indict the minister on Saturday as FIA had submitted the charge sheet against him after completing their investigations. Mushtaq Victor was arrested in April this year on the charges of sending 18 men and three women to Italy and other European countries shwong them their children and wives.

Meanwhile, anti-terrorism courts put off hearing in three different terrorism cases till January 3 after recording statements of prosecution witnesses.

ATC-I Judge Chaudhry Habibur Rehman put off the hearing in former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s assassination case after recording the statement of a judicial magistrate who earlier recorded the initial statements of the accused Sher Zaman, Aitzaz Shah, Abdul Rasheed, Hasnain Gul and Rafaqat Hussain.

The same court adjourned the hearing in the case of suicide attacks in R A Bazaar and near army house after recording the statements of some police men injured in the blasts. Hasnain and Rafaqat are the accused in these cases.

ATC-II Judge Sakhi Muhammad Kahot deferred the hearing in the case of suicide attack on the van of secret agency outside Hamza camp as the prosecution lawyer did not turn up in the court.