KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Thursday granted seven-day protective pre-arrest bail to the husband of the main suspect in the Karsaz traffic accident case.

The SHC directed the applicant to furnish a solvent surety of Rs50,000 and surrender himself before the trial court till or before Sept 4.

Danish Iqbal, husband of suspect Natasha Danish, through his counsel moved the SHC and asserted that after registration of a case, the female suspect was arrested, but during the course of investigation the applicant had also been named as suspect.

The lawyer contended that police had been raiding the house of the applicant and other places in order to arrest him while prosecution had nothing to connect him with the alleged offence.

He also argued that the applicant was the chief executive officer of Gul Ahmed Energy Limited and the Toyota Land Cruiser, which had been used in the accident, was registered in the name of the company.

The lawyer further contended that after receiving letters from the investigating officer of the case to provide documents about ownership of the vehicle in question, the same had already been provided to the IO, but again a notice was issued by the IO under Section 160 of the Pakistan Penal Code for similar purpose and with ulterior motive.

The counsel sought two-week protective bail to enable the applicant to approach the IO and join the investigation.

After a preliminary hearing, a single-judge bench of SHC headed by Justice Muhammad Saleem Jesser in his order said: “Prima facie, without dilating upon the merits and demertis of the case, applicant Danish Iqbal son of Iqbal Ali Mohammad is hereby granted protective pre-arrest bail in crime No.229/2024, under Sections 320, 337-G, 279, 247 PPC read with Section 322 PPC, registered with PS Bahadurabad, Karachi, for seven days subject to furnishing his solvent surety in the sum of Rs.50,000 and PR bond in the like amount to the satisfaction of Nazir of this court”.

This order shall cease to have its effect on Sept 4 or whenever the applicant approaches/surrenders before the court having jurisdiction whichever is earlier, it added.

According to the prosecution, Natasha Danish has been accused of recklessly driving the Toyota Land Cruiser and killing 60-year-old Imran Arif and his 22-year-old daughter Amna and wounding three others in an accident near Karsaz on August 19.

Initially, the police had registered a case against the female suspect under various provisions of the PPC, which were all bailable offences and later during the course of investigation Section 322 (punishment for qatl-bis-sabab) of the PPC was also incorporated in the FIR, which is a non-bailable section.

The female suspect was arrested on Aug 19 and a couple of days later a local court had sent her to prison on judicial remand and sought investigation report from the IO as required under Section 173 of the criminal procedure code.

It may be recalled that the provincial police officer Ghulam Nabi Memon on Wednesday said that the medical report of the female suspect showed that she was under the influence of the narcotic methamphetamine (commonly known as crystal meth).

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2024