Muhammad Bilal vs State S — 2024 YLR 2561 KARACHI-HIGH-COURT-SINDH

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Muhammad Bilal VS State S. 497---Penal Code (XLV of 1860), Ss. 409, 419, 420, 467, 468, 471, 477-A & 109---Prevention of Corruption Act (II of 1947), S.5---Criminal breach of trust, cheating by personation, cheating, forgery of valuable security, will etc., forgery, using as genuine a forged document, falsification of account, abetment, criminal misconduct---Bail, grant of---Further inquiry---Accused-petitioners were charged for committing misappropriation of funds from the salary accounts of HESCO employees from 2017 to 2023, which caused financial loss---Action against the applicants was not initiated on the complaint of HESCO---Action initiated by the FIA was based on "source report"---Noteworthy that the FIA was still struggling to find any money trail of the ill-gotten money back to the applicants---Moreover, FIA was not in a position to say how many employee salary accounts were manipulated, nor was the FIA in a position to show what loss each person caused in apportioning the phenomenal sum they said the applicants were liable to have embezzled---Equally noteworthy was that internal and external auditors did not discover the discrepancies for seven years and there did not seem to be audit reports on which HESCO relied---After seven years, FIA, not HESCO, discovered that a fraud of such a magnitude had occurred in HESCO---Federal Investigating Agency's failure to detect the crime earlier raised the question of its effectiveness---Apparently, the FIA had used its powers to register cases and arrest those accused in a pre-mature, mechanical and callous manner with little regard for people's right to dignity enshrined as a fundamental right in our Constitution---Law enforcement agencies could not be permitted to have such unbridled powers---Thoughts, reasons, and observations of the matter made the case against the applicants as one of further inquiry---Applicants had made out a case for the concession of bail---Bail applications were allowed, in circumstances.

Muhammad Bilal vs State S — 2024 YLR 2561 KARACHI-HIGH-COURT-SINDH

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