LAHORE: A banking court in Lahore on Saturday granted one-week interim bail to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Jahangir Tareen and his son Ali Tareen in two cases of corporate fraud and money laundering.
Additional District And Sessions Judge Hamid Hussain, while accepting the request, granted bails until April 10 against surety bonds of Rs0.5million apiece.
He also directed Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to present its record against the accused in the next hearing.
The agency has booked Tareen and members of his family on charges of corporate fraud and money laundering.
The cases, filed on March 22, 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 and 4 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2010.
In his response, Tareen termed the charge sheet as “totally fabricated”.
“I have already submitted a detailed reply along with concrete evidence in response to FIA notice. Unfortunate to see them go on another smear campaign against me & my family without establishing anything illegal,” he tweeted.
Tareen had returned to Pakistan in November after ending his seven-month-long self-imposed exile after falling out with Prime Minister Imran Khan following an inquiry into the last year’s sugar scandal that accused several sugar producers — including him — of “underreported sales and fraud”.
At the time, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Accountability Mirza Shahzad Akbar had declared sugar-producing units under Tareen’s JDW-Group were found guilty of “double billing” and “over-invoicing” as well as “corporate fraud”.
Tareen had rejected the findings of the Sugar Inquiry Commission. “I am shocked at the kind of false allegations levelled against me. I have always run a clean business. All Pakistan knows I always pay full price to my growers,” he had said in a tweet.
“I DO NOT maintain 2 sets of Books. I pay all my taxes diligently. I will answer every allegation and be vindicated IA.”
