KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court allowed the investigating officer to interrogate Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s lawmaker Rauf Siddiqui in regard to the allegations leveled against him for having received money to withdraw the case against the owners of ill-fated garment factory.
The investigating officer submitted a supplementary charge-sheet before the judge of the anti-terrorism court-II. It accepted the charge-sheet while allowing the investigating officer to interrogate Rauf Siddiqui with regard to his alleged involvement in the case.
The prosecution informed the judge that the interior secretary had also written a letter to the Interpol for issuance of red warrants for the arrest of absconding MQM Organising Committee Head, Hammad Siddiqui and submitted its copy in the court.
According to the charge-sheet, Bhola confessed during interrogation that he along with suspect Zubair alias Charya set the factory ablaze using chemicals after its owners failed to pay protection money. He admitted that he had done all this on the instructions of Hammad Siddiqui to teach the factory owners a lesson for failing to pay the demanded extortion money.
In his confessional statement before a magisterial court on Dec 22, Bhola stated that after the incident Rauf Siddiqui allegedly got a case registered against the owners of the ill-fated industrial unit. Later he came to know about Rauf Siddiqui and Hammad Siddiqui having received Rs 40 to 50 million from the factory owners to turn down the case against them.