KARACHI - The Sindh High Court on Monday granted pre-arrest bail to the owner of fast-food restaurant in a case regarding the deaths of two minor siblings in food poisoning.
The owner of Arizona Grill fast-food restaurant Nadeem Mumtaz, nominated in the case, moved with the plea seeking interim bail.
The plea was taken up before a bench headed by Justice Aqeel Abbasi, wherein his lawyer submitted his arguments before the court and requested to allow his pre-arrest plea as he was ready to face the trail.
The court granted his plea on the surety of Rs 0.2 million till January 10, and directed him to appear in trail court.
Earlier, the trail court had rejected his bail before arrest application then he fled away from the court after the order.
According to the prosecution, the two children, one-and-a-half-year-old Ahmed and his four-year-old brother Mohammad, died on November 10 after eating dinner at Arizona Grill in Defence.
Police in its report have confirmed that the food at the Arizona Grill restaurant had high levels of bacteria, the kids died after consuming unhygienic food at Arizona Grill. The police took action against Arizona Grill’s owner, manager and other staff, and arrested two employees, namely Adnan Aleem and Amir Akhtar Shaikh. But the police were unable to arrest the owner, Nadeem Mumtaz, who had obtained pre-arrest bail.
The siblings were taken to the South City Hospital by their relatives, but one of them died on the way and the other during treatment. The police investigation led to the restaurant’s sealing.
Samples of food and those collected from the victims and their house were sent to the Punjab Forensic Science Agency and the SGS Pakistan in Korangi, both of which confirmed that Arizona Grill’s food had bacteria. Police said they had `also found long expired food in the restaurant’s storeroom.
