ORDER SHEET

IN THE HIGH COURT OF SINDH AT KARACHI

Cr. Bail Application No.716 of 2025

Cr. Bail Application No.788 of 2025

DATE

ORDER WITH SIGNATUREs OF JUDGEs

 

For hearing of bail applications

---------------------------------------------

21.05.2025

           

            Mr. Taha Abdul Samad, advocate for applicant in B.A. 716/2025

            Mr. Nisar Ahmed Tarar, advocate for applicant in B.A. 788/2025

            Mr. Noor Muhammad Dayo, Assistant Attorney General

            ------------------------------------

            Applicants/accused Muhammad Saleem son of Muhammad Bilal, Danish son of Abdul Latif (in Cr. B.A. 716/2025) and Syed Kamran Ali son of Syed Mushtaq Ali (in Cr.B.A. No.788/2025) seek post arrest bail in FIR No.16/2024, registered at P.S. FIA Anti-Corruption Circle, Karachi for offence under sections 409, 419, 420, 468, 471, 109, 34 PPC read with Section 5(2) of the PCA 1947, after rejection of their bail plea by learned Special Judge (Central-II), Karachi vide orders dated 27.01.2025 and 20.12.2024.

 

2.         Briefly the facts of the prosecution case are that Enquiry No.48/2022 of FIA ACC, Karachi was registered and conducted upon order of Hon'ble High Court of Sindh, Karachi filed by the members of Pakistan Audit Department Employees Cooperative Housing Society, Karachi. During enquiry/investigation it surfaced that present applicant/accused in connivance with accused Abdul Salam Mandhro and others involved in illegal grabbing of Pakistan Audit Department Employees Cooperative Housing Society (PADECHS) as well as Telephone Employees Cooperative Society through engineered election of Societies and then sold fake files of plots of PADECHS to innocent peoples, thus caused loss to general public and gain undue benefit for himself and others as well.

 

3.         Learned counsel for applicants/accused mainly argued that applicants are innocent and they have been falsely implicated in this case; that after usual investigation IO cited 27 accused in challan, out of them 11 accused were granted bail by learned trial Court whereas 9 accused were granted post arrest bail by this Court vide orders dated 02.09.2024 and 11.03.2025. Learned counsel for applicants mainly contended that the case of present applicants/accused is on identical footing and prosecution has not challenged the bail granting order to the next forum, hence rule of consistency is applied in this case.

 

4.         Learned Assistant Attorney General opposed for grant of bail on the ground that applicants/accused have actively participated in the commission of alleged offence in connivance of main accused Abdul Salam Mandhro, therefore, they are not entitled for grant of bail.

 

5.         Heard learned counsel for applicants/accused, learned Assistant Attorney General and perused the material available on record.

 

6.         It is matter of record that this Court has granted bail to 9 accused persons vide orders dated 02.09.2024 and 11.03.2025 and the role of present applicants is identical to the role assigned to co-accused who were granted bail by this Court. It has been confirmed by learned Assistant Attorney General that bail granting orders have not been challenged before the next forum. The alleged offence does not fall within the prohibitory clause of Section 497, Cr.PC; challan has already been submitted; applicants are no more required for further investigation, hence no purpose would be served if they are kept in custody. Since co-accused have already been granted bail by this Court, the rule of consistency is applied in this case, therefore, applicants/accused above named are admitted to post arrest bail, subject to their submitting solvent surety in the sum of Rs.100,000/- (Rupees One Hundred Thousand) each, and P.R. Bond in the like amount to the satisfaction of the trial Court.

 

7.         Needless to mention here that the observations made herein above are tentative in nature, the same would not prejudice the case of either party at trial.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         J U D G E

Gulsher/PS