Salman Farooqi, guard granted bail in DHA assault case

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday granted post-arrest bail to a businessman and his guard in a case pertaining to an assault on a motorcyclist in the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) Karachi.

Salman Farooqi, said to be the executive officer of a private company, and his guard Owais Hashmi were arrested after a video went viral on social media showing Farooqi assaulting a motorcyclist, who was accompanied by his sister, after a minor accident on Khayaban-e-Ittehad earlier this month.

After hearing arguments from both sides, the SHC bench granted post-arrest bail to Salman and his guard against a surety of Rs100,000 each.

Earlier, on June 5, a sessions court had dismissed their bail plea even after the victim submitted a no-objection affidavit.

The victim, Dheeraj, along with his lawyer, appeared in the court and filed a no-objection affidavit stating that he would have no objection if the suspects were released on bail.

Additional Sessions Judge (South) Abdul Zahoor Chandio observed: "There are reasonable grounds to believe that the applicants/accused would influence the investigation and possibly tamper with evidence because the influence and power of the main accused presents a real and not speculative threat to the course of justice.”

He said the alleged conduct of the suspects could not be dismissed as "spontaneous or trivial in nature but it reflects a pattern of misuse of status, force, and impunity”.