Court extends interim bail of Mir Raza Ali's business partner till Aug 24

A sessions court on Saturday extended the interim pre-arrest bail of Muhammad Ahmed Bhardey, a business partner of slain businessman Mir Raza Ali, until August 24.

Bhardey approached the additional district and sessions judge (East) through his lawyer seeking protection from arrest in the murder case.

The court had granted him interim bail on Thursday against a surety of Rs100,000 and summoned the investigating officer and prosecution for Saturday’s hearing.

During the hearing, Bhardey’s counsel said his client feared arrest and was being harassed by police despite cooperating with the investigation.

The lawyer told the court that Bhardey had been Ali’s business partner, with each of them running a separate shop. He alleged that police had summoned his client to the crime scene instead of the police station and that he had faced harassment from the previous investigating officer.

However, Jibran Nasir, counsel for Ali’s family, rejected the allegation and said Bhardey had only been called as part of the investigation.

He said around 35 witnesses and other people had been summoned and questioned for several hours during the probe.

The court questioned why Bhardey had sought pre-arrest bail when he had not initially been nominated as an accused in the case.