Additional District and Session Judge (ADSJ) Nadeem Shoukat granted bail to Yawar Ali who had been involved in a bogus cheque dishonour case through his employee and was in jail for the last three year, a period almost equal to the maximum punishment under the relevant charge.
Earlier, five different bail applications filed by Yawar Ali had been rejected on merit i.e. three from Lahore High Court and two from Supreme respectively.
The ADSJ granted bail to Yawar Ali as a matter of statutory right provided by National Judicial Policy that if the trial against any accused involved in criminal case is not completed within one year, to be released on bail becomes the right of accused.
Yawar Ali is illiterate and owner of “Yawar Gift Centre” situated in Shah Alam Market.
An unfaithful employee: He hired Muhammad Rafique to oversee the financial matters of the shop. After some time, Rafique insisted that Yawar open a bank account and taught him to sign bank documents. He provided a specimen of signature to Yawar Ali for practice.
After opening an account in Standard Chartered Bank, Rafique prepared a fake authority letter on behalf of Yawar Ali with his signature addressed to the branch manager stating : “Rafique is his employee and is authorised to receive the cheque book against the account opened by Yawar Ali, the bank may release check book by examining his original identity card”.
On the basis of said letter, Rafique collected cheque book from bank and after some time he, out of said cheque book, issued ten different cheques having worth of Rs 13.3 million rupees, in his own name on behalf of Yawar Ali without a similar amount present in Yawar’s account.
After the said cheques were dishonoured, Rafique submitted an application in police station Old Anarkali for the registration of FIR against his employer under section 489/F, and the police after registration of the case arrested him.
Fake signatures: Yawar Ali filed a post-arrest bail application, through Rana Nadeem advocate and during the hearing, concerned bank submitted a report that authority letter which was presented by Rafique at the time of collecting cheque book, was fake, bank also confirmed that signatures on authority letter and on cheques issued afterward were also fake.
Despite the bank report, the court dismissed Yawar’s application without granting him post arrest bail. He onward filed several applications in this regard but all that remained fruitless.
On an application filed by Yawar Ali, the Supreme Court finally remanded the case to Additional District and Session Judge who ultimately broke the ice and granted bail to accused who remained in jail for three year, a period almost equal to the maximum punishment under the relevant charge.
