PTI estranged leader and industrialist Jehangir Tareen and his son Ali Tareen Saturday got interim bail from two courts in three different cases registered against them by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on the charges of money laundering, financial fraud and misappropriation of share holders’ money.
A sessions court granted interim bail to Jehangir Tareen and Ali Tareen in two cases of money laundering and financial fraud till April 10. The court ordered them to submit surety bonds of Rs 100,000 each for availing the bail relief.
Earlier, Jehangir Tareen and Ali Tareen appeared before Additional District and Sessions Judge Hamid Hussain. The petitioners’ counsel, Barrister Salman Safdar, argued before the court that all allegations levelled by the FIA were baseless and his clients were innocent. He urged the court to grant bail to his clients and restrain the FIA from arresting them.
The court granted interim bail to Jehangir Tareen and Ali Tareen till April 10 and restrained the FIA from arresting them. The court also sought record from the FIA till April 10.
Meanwhile, a special court of banking offences also granted interim bail to Jehangir Tareen and Ali Tareen till April 7 in cases registered on charges of misappropriation of share holders’ money. The court directed them to submit surety bonds of Rs 500,000 for availing the relief of bail. The court sought case record from the FIA by the next date of hearing.
The FIA Lahore circle had registered two FIRs against Jehangir Tareen, his son Ali Tareen, son-in-law and others under charges of money laundering and fraud in the sugar scam. The FIRs were registered under sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating of public shareholders) and 109 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), read with sections 3/4 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act.
Meanwhile, Adviser to Prime Minister on Interior and Accountability Shahzad Akbar has maintained that the inquiry into the sugar scandal was being carried out impartially and as per the law. “No one is being targeted and this investigation is not person-specific,” he said in an apparent reference to estranged PTI leader Jahangir Tareen, while addressing a press conference in Islamabad on Saturday.
Tareen had raised objections over FIA’s conduct while speaking to the media earlier in the day, saying, “Why such hype is being created only on Tareen’s mills. We have appeared before the court and will prove our innocence in court.”