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Petitioner: MUHAMMAD HAFEEZ VS Respondent: THE STATE
1988 P Cr
1988 P Cr. L J 539
[Lahore]
Before Munir A. Shaikh, J
MUHAMMAD HAFEEZ‑‑Petitioner
versus
THE STATE‑‑Respondent
Criminal Miscellaneous No. 1427/B of 1987, decided on 4th July; 1987.
Criminal Procedure Code (V of 1898)‑‑
‑‑S. 497‑‑Emigration Ordinance (XVIII of 1979), Ss. 17, 18 & 22‑‑ Passports Act (XX of 1974), S. 6‑‑Bail, grant of‑‑Some allegedly forged passports, seals and heroin recovered from house of accused‑ Heroin found to be Zinc powder by Chemical Examiner Recovery witness not supporting prosecution‑‑Passport‑holders stating to have handed over passports to co‑accused who is absconding‑‑No reasonable grounds, existed to gather from material on record that accused was connected with crime‑‑Bail granted in circumstances.
Malik Saeed Hassan for Petitioner. Rizwan Amjad for the State.
Date of hearing: 14th July, 1987.
JUDGMENT
The application moved by the petitioner previously for grant of bail was dismissed by my learned brother Riaz Ahmad, J. as per averment in Para. 7, therefore, vide my order dated 13‑7‑1987 I directed that this application be placed before the same learned Judge. Anyhow on the application of the petitioner bearing Criminal Miscellaneous No.635/87 the learned Chief Justice has been pleased to mark this bail application to me for disposal so I proceed to dispose of the same.
2. Record has been received and perused. A case has been registered against the petitioner under sections 17, 18 and 22 Emigration Ordinance read with Section 6 of the Passports Act vide FIR No.237/86 dated 16‑12‑1986. According to allegations made in the F.1.R. 6 passports which were allegedly forged alongwith 8 forged Blocks of seal and other material were recovered from the house of the petitioner alongwith heroin. The petitioner moved an application for enlargement on bail which was dismissed vide order dated 4‑5‑1987 by the learned Special Judge, Lahore. He earlier also moved Criminal Miscellaneous No.605/B‑87 for bail which was also dismissed my learned brother Riaz Ahmad, J. vide order dated 9‑3‑1987. This application has been moved on the ground that during the further investigation the Investigating Agency collected further evidence from which there are reasonable grounds to believe that the petitioner is not prima facie connected with the offence. Mr. Khalid Pervaiz S.I. F.I.A. is present with the record which has been perused. There are statements of the holders of the passports recorded by the Investigating Agency according to which the said passports were delivered by them to one Muhammad Salim who was dealing with the business of Travelling Agency for the purpose of documentation. The said Muhammad Salim is a proclaimed offender according to the learned counsel for the State. He could not be arrested uptil now. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the present petition has no connection in any manner with the offence as the passports were delivered to Muhammad Salim and not the petitioners as statement of holders of passports. It has been brought to my notice that during investigation Javed Iqbal who is alleged to have signed recovery memo, denied his signatures on the said recovery memo. It has also been admitted by the learned State counsel that during investigation the alleged heroin which was allegedly recovered from the petitioner alongwith the passports etc. was sent to the office of Chemical Examiner for analysis. The Chemical Examiner vide his opinion No.8396 dated 20‑12‑1986 has opined that the above packets contain zink powder. In view of these circumstances. It has been rightly argued by the learned counsel for the petitioner that prima facie there is no material on the record from which it could reasonably be gathered that the petitioner is connected with', the offences, rather there are grounds to hold that it is clearly a case of further investigation. Vide order dated 27‑6‑1987 a report was called for from the Special Judge (Central) Lahore as to when the trial in this case was likely to commence but no report has been sent to this Court. Without commenting upon the merits of the case so that it may not prejudice the trial of the case and in view of the above circumstances and the further evidence collected during investigation I am convinced that the petitioner has‑ made out a case for enlargement on bail being a case of further enquiry. This application is accepted and the petitioner is allowed bail in the sum of Rs.10,000 (Rupees ten thousand only) with one surety in the like amount to the satisfaction of A.C./Duty Magistrate, Lahore.
S. A./M‑518/L Bail granted.