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

LAHORE: A sessions court on Thursday extended interim bail of prominent politician and industrialist Jehangir Tareen and his son,

Ali Tareen, till May 3 in two cases registered by Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in connection with a sugar scam.

Earlier, the two along with their counsel appeared before Additional District and Sessions Judge Hamid Hussain on expiry of their interim bail.

The counsel for the petitioners argued that his clients had also obtained interim bail from a banking offence court in a connected case.

He submitted that FIA had raised objections on jurisdiction of the banking court and the matter was fixed for May 3, adding that it is to be witnessed whether the application pending before the banking court would come here or not.

He submitted that investigations were being conducted on charges of money laundering and his clients had joined the investigations.

He submitted that if the other case was also transferred to the sessions court then he would argue together in both cases.

The investigation officer submitted that investigations were in progress whereas the inquiry report was secret and could not be disclosed.

The court adjourned the further hearing till May 3 and directed the officer for submitting the inquiry report on the next date of hearing. The court also extended the interim bail of Jehangir Tareen and Ali Tareen.

The FIA had registered a total of 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 accused 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 is owned by his sons and close relatives.