KARACHI, Dec 6: The Sindh High Court on Monday adjourned for a week hearing of a bail plea made by the owner of the private security agency whose guards were involved in a 40-million-rupee robbery at a city money exchange on Oct 20.
Retired colonel Asghar Feroze, owner of the Maverick Security Agency, is on interim bail granted to him by Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed on Nov 11 in the sum of Rs10 million. As his plea for confirmation of interim bail came up on Monday, his counsel, Khwaja Naveed Ahmed, submitted that his client, 'who is innocent', has already appeared before the investigation agency and recorded his statement.
No further information was sought or required from him and confirmation of bail would not affect investigation. Assistant Advocate-General Habib Ahmed submitted that according to the police, the owner was involved in the commission of the offence.
During a raid on his office, the police claimed to have recovered a whole lot of 600 fake and genuine national identity cards. The cards were seized and a memorandum of recovery was prepared by the investigators.
The Maverick guards who deprived Zafar Paracha of International Money Exchange of foreign currency worth Rs 40 million at gun-point have also been found to have been employed on bogus identity cards, he stated.
Appearing for complainant Zafar Paracha, Advocate Raza Hashmi submitted that the accused applicant was not cooperating with the investigation agency. In his statement, he claimed that he was not present in Karachi when the two robber guards were employed by his agency.
He also claimed to have been absent from Karachi on the day when the guards were detailed for duty with the forex firm. He also pleaded alibi on the day of occurrence. He had tried to completely absolve himself and shift the entire blame to his agency's supervisor, Ghulam Husain.
It was the 'all powerful' supervisor who had posted the guards at the forex firm only three days before the occurrence, according to the owner. Justice Ahmed asked the applicant to take his supervisor to the investigation officer to have his (the supervisor's) statement recorded. Further hearing was adjourned to next Monday.