KARACHI: The District Malir police on Saturday arrested Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Ali Zaidi in a fraud case that was lodged by a businessman at the Ibrahim Hyderi police station.

Officials said Ali Zaidi had been detained in a forgery case. A complaint was received from the district police against Ali Zaidi by complainant Fazal Illahi, a businessman. The police are interrogating Ali Zaidi over the allegation leveled against him.

Ibrahim Hyderi police said that Fazal Illahi, in his complaint, said that he was a businessman and had been working in real estate since 2006.

On March 5, 2013, Zaidi, who used to work in real estate, took Rs180,000,000 from him as a loan and gave a property file against the said loan. The file was sold for Rs167,500,000 (Rs16 crore 75 lakh) and about the remaining Rs12,500,000 he assured that the rest would be returned to him in a month.

The complainant further said that his office was situated in Ibrahim Hyderi Jamote Para, where the contract was signed. Later, he asked for transfer of the plot many times, but Zaidi kept on dilly-dallying and when the file was verified, he came to know that the file was fake. The accused refused to give him money back on his repeated requests.

Officials said that on Saturday afternoon, the investigation team of District Malir raided a location in the DHA Phase-VI from where they arrested Ali Zaidi for questioning and shifted him to the police station for probe. After the arrest of the PTI leader, several activists and local leaders of PTI reached the Ibrahim Hyderi police station where they protested and demanded the release of their leader.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Sindh Media Department, in a statement said that the PTI president and former federal minister Ali Zaidi had been arrested from the provincial secretariat. Officials entered the party office without any warrant, the PTI Sindh spokesman said and added that Ali Zaidi was meeting the organisational office-bearers at the PTI Sindh Secretariat.