Court reject NAB plea for taking Memon into custody again

KARACHI: An accountability court on Saturday disapproved the National Accountability Bureau’s plea to move interned former Sindh information minister Sharjeel Memon to the bureau’s headquarters from jail for questioning him about making assets beyond income.

The Accountability Court-III judge, who heard the matter as substitute for the Court-I judge, directed the anti-graft watchdog to conduct the interrogation with the former minister inside the Central Jail Karachi, where he is being kept in judicial custody.

NAB had sought an NOC from the court to arrest Memon again and shift him to its headquarters, stating that his custody was required for questioning him about an ongoing investigation pertaining to accumulating assets beyond known sources of income.

Already two persons, Izhar Hussain and Sohail Ahmed, have been arrested in connection with the investigation. According to NAB, the suspects have revealed information about the illegally acquired properties of Memon in DHA and SITE areas.

The judge asked the NAB prosecutor why it was necessary to arrest the former minister and move him when the investigators could grill him inside the jail for questioning.

The prosecutor said that the jail authorities did not allow them do so as court orders were needed for this.

He asked the court to issue the NOC and referring to a Supreme Court order said that the trial court was obliged to grant it to ensure a smooth running of investigation affairs. The judge replied that a link court could not hand over the custody of a suspect under trial by another court.

The defence counsel argued that according to the law a jailed suspect could not be given into the custody of any investigating agency so any questioning would be done inside the prison.

He said that NAB was hiding facts from the court and was not giving any evidence about why they needed to interrogate his client.

The judge, after listening to arguments from both the sides, rejected the NAB request to move Memon and ordered that he would be grilled inside the jail for questioning.