RAWALPINDI, June 14: Another case of land grabbing is being prepared against the property tycoon Malik Riaz Hussain - this time by a Punjab government law officer.

Deputy prosecutor Rawalpindi Amir Tariq Mustafa asked the city police officer last weekend to submit a challan charging the property developer and his associates with illegally occupying 31 kanals and 10 malas of forest land 113-RF in Angori village in Murree tehsil for his Golf City project.

Documents seen by Dawn stated that the initial FIR was registered on March 8, 2008, by forest guard incharge Shajjal with a police station of Murree after the then Chief Justice of Lahore High Court took suo motu notice of the alleged land grabbing. But the case could not proceed any further for four years because of lack of coordination between the district prosecution office and the Rawalpindi police, local officials explained.

Although the challan of the case was submitted to the district prosecutor on January 10, 2011, it could not be sent to the trial court as the name of Malik Riaz Hussain was missing from it. Instead, a local resident named Riaz Hussain was mentioned as the accused.

After holding the apparently faulty challan for over a year, the prosecutor’s office sent it back to the police station in Murree on 25 January this year, with the instruction to include the name of tycoon Malik Riaz Hussain in it.

According to the FIR registered under section 447 of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), the officials of the forest department visited the forest and found that Malik Riaz Hussain had encroached on the 31 kanal and 10 marla land.

When the forest officials tried to retrieve the land, he refused to hand it over and tried to clash with them.

Though under the Punjab criminal prosecution service rules, the police were bound to submit the challan to the prosecution department 14 days after registration of the FIR, it delayed it for over two years. The prosecutor had to complete the scrutiny in three days.

Amir Tariq Mustafa, the district prosecutor, blamed the police for delaying the matter. While justifying the delay on the prosecution end, he said the matter had been pending before his transfer to Rawalpindi.

He said the police were responsible to submit the correct challan on time and their response caused the delay to process the case.

The challan was sent to the police station concerned for removing the objection on January 2012 but so far their compliance is still awaited, he added.

He, however, said the investigating officer after receiving the reminder sent on June 9 would rectify the challan and then the prosecution would submit it to the court for commencing the trial.

When contacted, Azhar Hameed Khokhar, the chief police officer of Rawalpindi, said the prosecutor could rectify the challan on their own. “I will see the matter and will do the needful after examining it,” he added.

Qaiser Mehmood, the legal adviser to Malik Riaz, when approached for comments, said he could not recall the matter because it was two years old and after examining the record he could pass any comment. He, however, said after initial investigation the police could change the name of an accused in the challan on the basis of available evidence and facts.