Rawalpindi-A court on Tuesday sent an accused to Adiala Jail on 14-day judicial remand in a case registered against him on charges of misappropriation of money and private money lending, informed sources.
The court also disallowed the request of Pirwadhai Police for discharge of accused identified as Raza Elahi in the case, they said.
The accused is said to be owner of Elahi Group of Companies, who has been arrested by police from Lahore and transferred to Rawalpindi with transit remand.
Earlier, Pirwadhai Police booked Raza Elahi with ex-Federal Secretary Arif Elahi and Danish Elahi under section 406 of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and under The Punjab Prohibition of Private Money Lending Act 2007 (3-4-5-6) on complaint of Khuram Imtiaz and began investigation, source said.
According to sources, a team of Pirwadhai Police produced the accused Raza Elahi before Senior Civil Judge (Crl.Division) Rawalpindi Maqsood Ahmed Qureshi who took up the case. They said the investigation officer of case has requested the court to discharge the accused from the case because the allegations levelled against him in the first information report (FIR) could not be established during the investigation.
However, the judge remarked that perusal of case revealed that accused is nominated in the FIR with specific role of misappropriation of money of the complainant and also offence of private money lending.
“Furthermore, the opinion of IO is not based on legal ground. It is settled principle of law that opinion of police is not binding upon the court, especially when not based on any cogent material,” the judge observed in his verdict copy of which is also available with The Nation. The judge also stated in the light of above discussion request of IO for discharge of accused is hereby disallowed and the accused Raza Elahi is sent to judicial lock-up from where he would be produced before the court on December 14, 2019 for further proceeding.
The police shifted the accused to Adiala Jail amid tight security, sources said.
They said the complainant in the FIR registered with PS Pirwadhai, earlier, accused Raza Elahi, ex-Federal Secretary Arif Elahi and Danish Elahi of getting transferred his 97 kanal 18 marla land in their names in a fraudulent way. H
e added the troika purchased land from him against Rs 30,00,000 per Kanal and also promised to provide him stock oil in return of money. However, nothing was done and the troika started threatening him and his family of dire consequences on phone.
Police booked the troika and launched investigation into allegations besides arresting an accused Raza Elahi from Lahore. The source claimed that the police conducted wrong investigation into case apparently on pressure of bosses and asked the court to discharge the charges against the accused. However, the court expressed dismay over interrogation of police and sent accused to jail.
SP Rawal Division Asif Masood, while talking to media men, dispelled the impression that the investigators took side of accused to give him clean chit.