SHC rejects bail plea of key suspect in Baldia factory fire case

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday rejected a bail petition of key suspect Zubair alias Charya in the Baldia factory fire case.

A division bench of the high court directed the anti-terrorism court (ATC) hearing the case to complete trial at the earliest.

SSP Sajid Sadozai, investigating officer of the case, told the judges that a witness testified against the accused on December 22, 2016 that he set the factory ablaze using chemicals.

There were concrete evidences about the involvement of Zubair Charya and Abdul Rehman alias Bhola, a former sector-in-charge of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), in the crime, he said.

Bhola had also confessed to the crime, he added.

In his confessional statement, Bhola stated that he with Zubair, alias Charya, set the factory ablaze on the instructions of then chief of the MQM organizing committee Hammad Siddiqui after the factory owners declined to pay protection money.

Nearly 250 people were burnt to death in a horrific blaze swept through the factory in September 2012. The government formed a JIT to thoroughly investigate the incident, which later made startling revelations.

“The fire that had engulfed the Baldia factory was an outcome of a pre-planned scheme and that it was not an accident,” revealed the JIT report. “The factory was set ablaze over non-payment of Bhatta – protection money.”

The report stated that MQM sector in-charge Rehman alias Bhola and Hammad Siddiqui had demanded Rs 200 million extortion money from the owners of the factory.