ISLAMABAD: Four owners and management officials of a private housing society were arrested after a local court dismissed their pre-arrest bail petitions on Monday.Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADSJ) of Sessions Division East, Rasool Buksh Mirjat, took up the applications seeking bail before arrest for the housing society’s owners Chaudhry Abdul Rehman, Salman Akbar, Safeer Akbar, Ammar Zafar and Chaudhry Masood.

They were nominated in five FIRs registered against them by the affected plot purchasers who are serving and retired government employees.

The FIRs have been registered under section 420 (cheating), 468 and 471 (forgery and using forged documents) against the accused persons.

The suspects appeared before the court along with their counsel. However, Rehman, the principal accused, sought exemption from personal appearance for being not well.

ADSJ Mirjat accepted his request and exempted him from personal attendance for Monday.

The court had earlier granted the nominated persons time to settle the matter with the affected plot buyers.

When the hearing resumed, the court was told that the accused failed to make a compromise with the complainants. Subsequently, the court dismissed their petitions seeking pre-arrest bail.

The police took five owners/directors of the housing society - Ghauri Town - in custody.

The FIR stated that the affected persons booked the plots in an upcoming sector of the housing society in 2012-13, however, the management failed to hand them over the plots.

In 2020, the owners handed over management of the housing society to Chaudhry Mohammad Usman Akram, who was also nominated as an accused in the FIRs.

The FIR stated that in 2021 Akram handed over possession of the plots to the affected buyers who were serving and retired government officials.

In Feb last year, Akram filed a suit for cancellation of the agreement that changed the ownership of the private housing society after the owners failed to honour their commitment of clearing the outstanding dues of the affected buyers.

The suit for cancellation of the agreement is pending before a civil judge of Islamabad.

Published in Dawn, April 4th, 2023