PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Monday rejected the pre-arrest bail plea of the owner of a private housing scheme in a case of two bogus cheques of Rs3.75 million.

A single-member bench comprising Chief Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan ruled that the petitioner, Sultanuddin, was not entitled to the concession of pre-arrest bail. Following the order, the police arrested the petitioner.

An FIR was registered against the petitioner at the East Cantonment police station on Sept 16, 2021 under section 489-F of PPC by an affected client, namely Soharb Khan.

Sher Haider Khan Advocate appeared for the complainant and stated that the petitioner along with his brother had launched a private housing scheme by the name of Peshawar City Residentia, and had lured people to purchase plots in it.

He stated that his client had also paid Rs3.75 million for purchasing two plots. Subsequently, he said the scheme turned out to be illegal as the owners were not having the required land, and some of them, including a brother of the petitioner, were also arrested by NAB.

Advocate Sher Haider stated that to settle the financial dispute with the complainant the petitioner had given him two cheques of Rs3.75 million, but when he tried to encash them the cheques were bounced.

He stated that the petitioner had earlier approached the court of additional district and sessions judge seeking pre-arrest bail, but had escaped from there when he realised that his petition would be dismissed there.

However, the petitioner’s counsel contended that his client was implicated in a fake case, claiming in fact his client had purchased two plots from the complainant and had given him the said cheques on condition that these would be encashed after he handed over possession of the plots. However, he said the complainant tried to encash the said cheques without first handing over the possession of plots to his client.

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2022