Court extends interim bail of Jehangir Tareen, son till May 3

LAHORE: A special court of banking offence on Saturday extended interim bail of prominent politician and industrialist Jehangir Tareen and his son Ali Tareen till May 3 in a case registered by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in connection with sugar scam.

The both with their counsel appeared before Judge Ameer Muhammad Khan on expiry of their interim bail.

The petitioners' counsel argued before the court that the FIA issued summons to his clients with a delay and it summoned them on one day notice. He submitted that reply of questions would be filed with FIA till Monday.

However, an assistant director legal on behalf of agency argued that Jehangir Tareen and Ali Tareen had not provided data yet. The investigations would be completed once they provide the record, he added.

At this stage, the court noted that on last hearing, the FIA had raised question on its jurisdiction to hear the matter.

To this, the petitioners' counsel argued that the court was empowered to hear the matter.

Subsequently, the court extended interim bail of Jehangir Tareen and Ali Tareen till May 3 and directed the agency to complete investigations as soon as possible.

The FIA had registered three FIRs against Jahangir Tareen, his son Ali Tareen, and others under charges of money laundering, misappropriation of shareholders money and fraud in the sugar scam.

Two 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.

In third case, it was alleged that Tareen fraudulently misappropriated money of shareholders after his company (JDW group) transferred Rs 3.14 billion to an associated private company identified as Farooqi Pulp Private Limited (FPML).

The FIR stated that the private company was owned by his sons and close relatives.