MULTAN, Oct 17: The district and sessions judge has ordered a judicial inquiry to probe whether the fraudulent ‘madad committee’ patron Tahir Sharif is in police custody.

The inquiry has been ordered on the consistent denial of police authorities that Tahir had never been arrested.

Tahira Sharif, sister of the madad committee patron, had filed a habeas corpus petition last month for the production of her brother whom she claimed was in police custody.

SP (investigation) Malik Mureed Hussain had always expressed his ignorance to court about the whereabouts of the madad committee patron.

On Thursday, the judge once more summoned the SP to produce Tahir, but he again offered the same excuse that police did not know where he had been slipped.

The judge directed him to consult his highups and then reappear at about 12.30 noon before court with a solid reply. However, the SP repeated his earlier stance.

Upon this, the judge directed senior civil judge Syed Khursheed Anwar Rizvi to hold an inquiry on day-to-day basis up to Oct 22 and submit his findings the next day that who was telling a lie the police or the petitioner.

Meanwhile, the petitioner submitted clippings from various national and local dailies about the news of her brother’s arrest.

The inquiry officer was also directed to append clippings with his inquiry report.

Tahir Sharif had allegedly swindled hundreds of people by offering 44 per cent profit against a deposit on weekly basis.

To multiply their savings, not even Multanis but people from across the country deposited their savings with the madad committee.

When the government intervened in the third week of September last, the deposits of the committee had turned millions of rupees.

Riots broke out in Liaquatabad, Tata Colony and Muhammadpura localities with the reported arrest of Tahir Sharif as by that time he was giving his depositors the promised rate of profit.

An official committee assessed the ‘fraud’ more than Rs220 million in monetary terms.