IN THE HIGH COURT OF SINDH AT KARACHI
Constitutional Petition No.D-1797 of 2006
Present: Mr. Justice Rahmat Hussain Jafferi
Justice Mrs. Yasmin Abbasey, JJ
Date of Hg : 08.12.2006
Appellant : Syed Mohsin Abbas Abidi through Mr. M. A. Kazi, Advocate.
Respondents : National Accountability Bureau through Mr. Shafaat Nabi Khan Sherwani, Deputy Prosecutor General Accountability.
RAHMAT HUSSAIN JAFFERI, J: The petitioner has prayed for the grant of pre-arrest bail in a case, which was being investigated by the NAB authorities on the allegations that the petitioner in conspiracy with co-accused Sohail Abbas prepared a plan to defraud the bank by getting the loan sanctioned in the name of co-accused Sohail Abbas against forged securities, which were stolen from National Saving Centre.
The learned advocate for the petitioner has stated that the petitioner was Manager, Retail Banking, Askari Commercial Bank, Shahrah-e-Faisal Branch, Karachi; that his duties were to invite people to take loan; that the documents were processed by other officials and the loan was sanctioned by another branch, therefore, he has no involvement in the fraud or misappropriation of the bank’s amount.
Conversely, the learned DPGA has stated that the petitioner being the Manager, Retail Banking Unit processed the loan of Rs.900,000/- of the co-accused Sohail Abbas. He moved the file and to keen interest getting securities accepted by making forged endorsement of Postal Authority about the verification of said securities; that the petitioner moved the file for disbursement of the amount and then subsequently, he received a cheque of Rs.500,000/- from the co-accused. He has further stated that the petitioner is involved in the case.
We have given due consideration to the arguments, gone through the material available on the record and found that the Investigation Officer examined nine (9) witnesses, out of them six (6) witnesses were of Askari Commercial Bank, namely, (1) Muhammad Ahmed Farooqui, V.P. Manager Operational, (2) Muhammad Mustafa Kamal Khan, Assistant Manager, (3) Shahbaz Sabor, Senior V.P., (4) Saleem Ahmed Khan, Vice President, (5) Amir Irshad, Manager and (6) Nihal Ahmed Khan, Chief Manager, Irshad Ahmed, Post Master General, Ghulam Abbas and Mansoor Ahmed, father and brother of the co-accused Sohail Abbas.
We have gone through the evidence of all these witnesses. From the tentative assessment of the said evidence, we found that on 14.2.2005 the petitioner processed the application of loan of Rs.900,000/- of the co-accused Sohail Abbas against securities i.e. Regular Income Certificates (R.I.Cs.) of Rs.10,00,000/-. The application and documents were processed by him. He sent the file for residential verification report and then the case was forwarded to Head Office Rawalpindi for sanction of the loan. After sanction of the loan he drafted a letter for verification of R.I.Cs. from Post Master General on 16.2.2005. The said letter was presented before P.Ws. Muhammad Ahmed Farooqui and Saleem Ahmed Farooqui. They signed the letter, but obtained the signature of the petitioner on the letter as an acknowledgment. The statements of P.Ws. Saleem Ahmed Farooqui and Muhammad Ahmed Farooqui shows that the petitioner was taken keen interest in pursuing the matter, therefore, PW Saleem Ahmed Farooqui obtained his signature on the letter. PW Saleem Ahmed Farooqui further stated in his statement that the verification and lien marked of securities (R.I.Cs) were got arranged by the petitioner personally, which were subsequently, proved to be fake and forged as per statement of PW Irshad Ahmed, Senior Post Master, Post Office Nazimabad, Karachi. The statement of PW Nihal Ahmed Khan, who was Chief Manager, further shows that the petitioner undertook assignment of the lien marked. The verification of the said letter of lien marked dated 16.2.2005 was got verified on 17.2.2005 with endorsement that the R.I.Cs. were validly issued to the co-accused Sohail Abbas, but PW Senior Post Master Irshad Ahmed stated that the said endorsement was forged. On the same date, the petitioner moved the file for disbursement of amount and the file was sent to PW Muhammad Ahmed Farooqui for passing appropriate orders and on the same date the amount was received by the co-accused. The statements of father and brother of the co-accused reveals that from their house they found a receipt of cheque of Rs.500,000/-, which was found to be signed by the petitioner. However, the signature on the said receipt has not been verified by the Handwriting Expert.
From the tentative assessment of the evidence, we are of the considered view that the prosecution has sufficient material with them to connect the petitioner with the crime and there are reasonable grounds for believing that he is involved in the case.
This is a pre-arrest petition in which the main consideration is to see whether the intended arrest of the petitioner by the NAB authorities is with malafide intention or otherwise. The material collected by the NAB authorities is sufficient on which arrest can be made, therefore, there is no malafide on the part of the NAB authorities in arresting the petitioner, as such, the main ingredients for the grant of pre-arrest bail are missing in the case. Consequently, the petition is dismissed. Interim order granted pre-arrest bail to the petitioner is hereby vacated.
These are the reasons of the said short order.
Karachi
Dated 08.12.2006 JUDGE
JUDGE