SAHIWAL: AntiCorruption Special Judge Asif Bashir denied the bail request of Khawar Maneka and his son Musa Maneka in Auqaf department`s land garbing case and sent the former back to Okara district jail.

Anti-Corruption Establishment Regional Director Kanwar Khalid told Dawn that accused Khawar Maneka was presented in the court, while his son Musa, also an accused, did not appear.

Advocates Rao Nazar Farid Nadeem and Rai Muhammad Arshad Raza representingthe accused sought their bail from the court but the judge rejected their plea.

Mr Maneka was sent by a judicial magistrate on a 14-day judicial remand to the Okara district jail on October 5 after his physical remand ended.

Kanwar Khalid said that 26 shopkeepers of Haveli Lakha had given a written statement that Khawar Maneka, his accountant (Munshi) and his son have been receiving rent for the shops from them for the lastfive to six years.

Hasan Abbas Kazmi and Tahir Manzoor, advocates represented ACE, while defense counsel.

The ACE regional director said the department is collecting more concrete evidence of illegal occupation of Auqaf land by the accused.

Okara ACE circle had registered a first information report (FIR) against Khawar Maneka and his two sons, Ibrahim Maneka and Musa Maneka, under sections 409, 420, 468, and 471 of the Pakistan Penal Code, along with section 5/2/47 of The Prohibition of Corruption Act.

The case is related to alleged illegal occupation of a piece of Auqaf department`s land at Haveli Lakkha by Khawer Maneka, the exhusband of Bushra Bibi, who is now wife of PTI chairman and former premier Imran Khan, and her two sons.

The accused later built shops and a wedding lawn on the Auqaf department land without approval from the Municipal Committee Haveli Lakkha, causing heavy financial losses to the exchequer.