Additional District and Sessions Judge Abu-ul-Hasnat Zulqarnain Chaudhry on Thursday granted bail to a Frenchman, Phillipe Jean Marie, in two cheque dishonour cases. Earlier, the judicial magistrate had rejected two bail applications filed by the foreigner. Two citizens named Nauman Rasheed and Ali Anwar had registered two separate cases in Old Anarkali Police Station under Section 489-F of the Pakistan Penal Code. They complained that the foreigner’s issued them two bad cheques worth Rs 1.25 million and Rs 0.5 million. The plaintiffs said the foreigner was an imposter and pretended to be an official of the French embassy in Pakistan.
Interestingly, at the time of registration of the cases, the accused was already in the custody of Sarwar Road Police for smuggling liquor. The police had arrested him from the Lahore cantonment area and seized at least 100 bottles of liquor. He was said to be involved in some other criminal cases as well.
The counsel for the accused foreigner, Shahzad Hassan Sheikh, told the court that the bad cheques had actually been stolen and an application to that effect was registered with the Allama Iqbal Police Station. The court accepted the appeals of the accused and granted him bail.
One of the plaintiffs, Nauman Rasheed, told reporters after the hearing that the accused had hired Lahore Bar Association President Shahzad Hassan Shiekh as his lawyer to pressure the court. He claimed Sheikh had got the bad cheque cases transferred from three courts within a month.