Baldia Town factory set on fire for not paying extortion: JIT report
The accused were released on bail with the help of former PM, JIT report made part of court record
KARACHI: (Dunya News) – Joint Investigation Team (JIT) has revealed in its report that the Baldia Town Factory was set on fire for not paying extortion money. The report says that the accused were released on bail with the help of former prime minister. JIT report has been made a part of the court record on Friday, reported Dunya News.
According to details, two separate reports were provided by the court observer and Rangers before the division bench comprised of Justice Maqbool Baqir and Justice Zafar Rajpoot that was hearing Baldia Town incident case. Rangers’ Law Officer presented the report which was made a part of the court record. The report reveals that the factory was torched for not paying extortion money.
Report says that a suspect named Rizwan Qureshi was arrested and he had confessed that he, along with his aides, had demanded Rs. 200 million as extortion but the factory administration refused to pay it to them. He had confessed that he and his aides had set the factory on fire.
The report also revealed that that the arrested suspects got the bail but a provincial minister got their release orders cancelled. Later, the suspects got their bails approved from Lahore High Court (LHC). The report says that the suspects enjoyed the support of former prime minister as well.
Rangers’ Law Officer maintained before the court that the police had concealed the facts in its report, by design.
Court observer Zaheeruddin told in his report that compensation has been paid to 622 victims of the incident while 128 victims are still to be paid their compensation.
Court directed the High Court observer to present the report again after paying the victims as soon as possible. It also directed the trial court to complete the Baldia Town case hearing within one year.
All the accused in the case, including the factory owners, are on bail while the statements of the witnesses will be recorded now.
