Land scam: Special team formed to arrest realtor, son

RAWALPINDI: A special police team, headed by Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Yasin Farooq, has been constituted to arrest a real estate tycoon and his son involved in a land scam. The move came after the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) director sought the help of the police in arresting Bahria Town owner Malik Riaz and his son Ali Riaz.

The real estate tycoon and his son along with others are facing charges of purchasing 1,401 kanals of land in 2009 on forged documents and fake identities.

The Bahria Town administration had taken the stance that they were not the beneficiaries in this scam, as they had paid Rs80.5 million for the land. The trial court however did not agree with their plea.
Moreover, an anti-corruption court rejected the bail pleas of five men arrested in this case.

Judge Malik Nazir Ahmed denied bail to Colonel (retd) Saeed Akhtar, the general manager, Bahria Town; Muhammad Iqbal, site manager Rawat, two revenue officials Adnan Bashir Kiani and Muhammad Hussain, and Asad Nazeer for purchase the land at Malikpur fraudulently.

The counsel for Col Akhtar and Iqbal said Bahria Town had lodged a criminal case with the Rawat police against the men who sold the land on fake documents to the housing society.

The bail was rejected after the actual land owner said that he had never received any payment for his land. “We were not aware of this deal,” he said.

On October 3, Malik Riaz had denied any involvement in the case and said his housing society was a victim in the case.

The belated investigation in the case started last month after one of the accused, Tanveer, approached the Supreme Court for bail contending that the ACE had only arrested him and the influential accused were at large.

The case was registered after the villagers complained to the ACE against the revenue officials for depriving them of their land. Subsequently, the mutation of the land was cancelled by district officer revenue (DOR) and investigations were initiated.