KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on
Monday granted bail to Axact Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Shoaib Shaikh
and 13 others in the fake degrees case.
Justice Iqbal Kalhoro approved the bail plea against a surety bond of Rs500,000 each after hearing arguments from both parties.
All those granted bail in the case have been in custody for the past 15 months.
Lawyer
for Axact, Shaukat Hayat, argued during the hearing that the Federal
Investigation Agency (FIA) and the prosecution had been employing
delaying tactics, pointing out that the accused have not been indicted
thus far – despite a lapse of 15 months.
Hayat claimed
there had been no headway in the case to legitimise his stance that the
accused were entitled for bail, especially since his clients had no
criminal record or allegations of involvement in terrorism.
The
Axact scandal surfaced in May last year when The New York Times
published a report that claimed the company sold fake diplomas and
degrees online through hundreds of fictitious schools, making “tens of
millions of dollars annually”. Subsequently the offices of Axact were
sealed, its CEO and key officials were arrested and a probe was launched
on the basis of the allegations leveled by NYT.
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