KARACHI: A criminal case, registered against a Karachi-based businessman Shahzad Riaz at B-Section Police Station of district Khairpur under Sections of Anti-Terrorism Act and dacoity, was proven fake and fictitious in police inquiry.
The registration of cases against businessman Shahzad Riaz at various police stations in Sindh and the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) is a classic example of police atrocities against the citizens.
The inquiry was ordered on June 16, 2022, by a Divisional Bench of Sindh High Court, of the case against Shahzad Riaz a Karachi-based businessman. According to the documentary evidence available with The News, the case was registered by Ali Rehbar Rind, resident of district Khairpur on May 2, 2022, when Shahzad Riaz was behind the bars in Sanghar in another case of alleged fraud of Rs500,000. The complainant in the FIR maintained that Shahzad Riaz on December 29, 2021, had snatched a Nokia mobile phone worth Rs5,000 on gun point and created terror by aerial firing at Shah Hussain Bypass in district Khairpur.
DSP Ghulam Ali Jumani, the inquiry officer, in his report, submitted before the Sindh High Court, that the case was fake and fabricated and questioned as to how a large taxpayer businessman of metropolitan city would come nearly 500 kilometers away to snatch a mobile phone worth Rs5,000. SSP Malik Zafar Iqbal told ‘The News’ that the case was proven fake in the investigation, conducted on orders of the Sindh High Court. He added that if Shahzad Riaz approaches Khairpur Police for action against the complainant then a legal action would be taken.
On the other hand Shahzad Riaz claimed that all the cases against him were registered to please an influential personality. “Some of the cases have already been proven fake and fabricated, and the remaining will also be proven false”. Earlier, Riaz was booked for alleged misappropriation of public funds in the ‘Sindh Tractor Subsidy Scheme’ by Sindh Anti-Corruption Establishment on January 4, 2022. When the Sindh High Court had granted him bail on April 29, 2022 and ordered to release him, the Sanghar Police which had registered a fraud case of Rs500,000 on the same day, took Riaz into custody from Central Jail Hyderabad.
The miseries of Shahzad Riaz did not end as when he filed a bail application, then the Khiarpur Police registered another case against him under Section of dacoity and terrorism. Earlier in 2017, Riaz was booked in the ‘Sindh Tractor Subsidy Scheme’ case on similar charges and remained in jail for four months before being released on the bail by the Sindh High Court. On June 10, 2022, the SHC took exception to the arrest of a businessman and observed that the police and the prosecution did not act in accordance with the law.