Pre-arrest bails dismissed in Karachi school demolition cases

KARACHI: A sessions court dismissed on Tuesday pre-arrest bail applications of a Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) official and three others in two cases pertaining to the demolition of a heritage building in Soldier Bazaar neighbourhood.

FIA Inspector Adnan Ali, Abid Shabbir, Muhammad Yusuf and Amin, through their counsel, had moved their pre-arrest bail applications on a previous hearing. The court, allowing their applications, had directed them to appear in person for confirmation or otherwise.

At the outset of the hearing on Tuesday, District East additional sessions judge Ahsan Khan Durrani heard arguments from the prosecution and the defence over the bail application and observed that the accused did not deserve bail.
The school that is no more

After their bails were dismissed, the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) tasked with the investigations arrested the suspects while their lawyers were trying to save them from being taken into custody by escorting them to the Karachi Bar Association office.

The suspended Soldier Bazaar police station’s SHO, Irshad Soomro, ASI Hakim Ali, Mukhtiarkar Ahmed Memon and surveyor Ghulam Fareed Chauhan have already been sent to prison for their alleged role in the demolition of a pre-Partition building, located inside Jufelhurst School in Soldier Bazaar, on the night of April 8.

Initially, a case was registered against the suspects under Sections 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees), 447 (punishment for criminal trespass), 511 (attempt to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or for a shorter terms) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), 1860, at Soldier Bazaar police station on the complaint of a culture department official.

SBCA bylaws prohibit future building plans at demolished Jufelhurst School structure

Later, another FIR of the incident was registered under Sections 427, 448 (punishment for house-trespass) 452 (house-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault etc), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 of the PPC on the complaint of the school’s headmaster.

Source: The Express Tribune