KARACHI, April 10 An accountability court on Friday reserved its verdict for April 14 in a land scam reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau against a senior police officer and others.

The NAB, Sindh, on December 4, 2007 arrested the deputy inspector-general of Sindh police, Altaf Hussain Bhatti, on charges of misusing his authority while holding a public office by illegally acquiring over 500 acres of government land in Thatta district and causing heavy losses to the national exchequer.

The accused DIG and his associates - Ali Ahmed Bhatti, Mohammad Usman Memon, Noor Ahmed Mangi, Mohammad Hussain, Usman G. Memon, Hanni Ram and Haji Mohammad Thain - have been indicted in the corruption reference (59/2007).

Judge Syed Aley Maqbool Rizvi of the AC-I reserved his verdict for April 14 after recording final arguments from both sides.

In his final arguments, Special Prosecutor Hussain Bux Baloch said that the prosecution has proved its case against the accused persons. He prayed to the court to hand down maximum punishment to the accused.

The defence counsel argued that their clients were implicated in the case and the prosecution had failed to establish its case against them.

They prayed to the court to acquit their clients.

According to the reference, the DIG had illegally transferred small pieces of state land in fake names and got them allotted to himself, his family members and other relatives.The accused have been tried under Sections 9 (4) of the National Accountability Bureau Ordinance, 1999, read with Sections 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471(using as genuine a forged document) and 34 (common intent) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The DIG was granted bail by a bench of the Supreme Court. The remaining accused persons were also released on bail.

Robber jailed for three years

An additional district and sessions judge (south) sentenced a man to three years in prison in a robbery case after he entered a guilty plea on Friday.

Judge Nizar Ali Khawaja convicted Zahid when he pleaded guilty in a 2006 robbery case.

The judge also imposed a fine of Rs5,000 and in case of default, the convict would have to undergo an additional 15-day imprisonment.

While taking the mitigation plea, Public Prosecutor Abdul Maroof requested the court to give lenient punishment to the accused since he was a teenager and had also pleaded guilty.

The court extended the benefit of Section 382-B (period of detention to be considered while awarding sentence of imprisonment) of the criminal procedure code to the convict.

The prosecutor said that the convict was about to complete his sentence and his release order would be issued soon.

According to the prosecution, two accused, Zahid and Abdul Majeed, looted Rs1,100 from the complainant, Gulzar Ahmed, on April 24, 2006 in the limits of the Baghdadi police station. However, the police arrested the accused on the same day.

A case (FIR174/06) was registered under Section 392/34 of the Pakistan Penal Code at the Baghdadi police station against the accused. However, accused Majeed died in jail custody on Oct 15, 2006.

Forex dealer gets bail

A special banking court granted bail to a foreign exchange dealer against the surety amount of Rs10 million on medical grounds.

The forex dealer, Mehboob Rehmatullah Moti, director and partner of Al-Sahara Exchange Company, was arrested on Dec 17, 2008 on charges of illegally sending millions of rupees abroad.

Judge Ghulam Hussain Mallah pronounced his order after recording arguments on the bail application from both sides.

The suspect's counsel, Adnan Memon, filed a bail application stating that his client was seriously ill and a medical board constituted on a court order also declared him a high-risk patient.

He argued that his client was also suffering from diabetes but medical facilities were not being provided to him in jail.

Furnishing the medical certificates and required documents, he prayed to the court to allow the bail application on medical grounds.

However, the prosecutors opposed the plea and requested the court to summon the members of the medical board that issued the certificates.

According to the prosecution, a case was registered against the suspect after initiating an inquiry on a complaint (108/2008) lodged by the State Bank of Pakistan regarding illegal transfer of money abroad. It said that besides the authorised exchange business, the firm indulged in illegal transfer of millions of rupees abroad with the connivance of different banks, exchange companies, moneychangers, businessmen and private parties.

It said that the investigators had seized six servers and two desktop computers containing data of such unauthorised transactions.

A case (83/2008) was registered against the suspect under Sections 5, 8, 22 and 23 of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1947 read with 7, 8 & 20 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Ordinance, 2007 and 409, 420, 467, 471, 477-A/34 of the Pakistan Penal Code at the FIA crime circle branch, Karachi.

However, the investigation officer had filed three separate charge-sheets in the court. The suspect is being tried in the banking court in scheduled offences while other offences under the foreign exchange act and the prevention of electronics crimes ordinance are being tried in the district and sessions court (south).

Suspected militants remanded

Five suspected militants were remanded in CID police custody till April 15 on Friday by a judicial magistrate (Malir).

The police arrested the suspects - Mohammed Akbar alias Ibrahim, Sarfaraz alias Asadullah, Farid Ahmed alias Furqan, Faisal Sheikh alias Kamran and Dur Mohammad Baloch alias Bilal - in the limits of the Sohrab Goth police station on April 8.

They claimed that the suspects, who belonged to different banned outfits, were allegedly involved in armed attacks on Nato supplies in Waziristan and were planning to attack army and police installations in the city.

Besides hashish and stolen vehicles, a large cache of ammunition, weapons and explosive material were also recovered from them.

A number of cases were registered against the suspects under different sections of the Arms Ordinance, the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, the Explosives Act and the Pakistan Penal Code.