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KARACHI, Aug 30: An anti-terrorism court reserved on Thursday its order in the case of SSC student Rashid, son of Qadir Bux Brohi, who was kidnapped for ransom on November 15 last year.
After hearing the final arguments of defence counsel G.M. Qadri and Special Public Prosecutor Mohammed Mazhar Qayyum, Judge Haq Nawaz Baloch of ATC-V fixed August 31 as the date for the pronouncement of his order.
The statements of the men accused of the crime, Sheraz Ahmed and Qari Ghulam Yaseen, were recorded by the court for the second time on August 23 but they pleaded not guilty and claimed to have been falsely implicated.
According to the prosecution, the accused kidnapped Rashid from the Hub River side and kept him somewhere in the limits of the Manghopir police station. They demanded Rs10 million in ransom but during negotiations, Rashid’s family whittled the sum down to Rs2 million. The money was handed over in Islamabad’s Nawaz Sharif Park and the student was released.
FIR No. 147/06 was registered under Section 365-A/34 of the Pakistan Penal Code at the Manghopir police station. The accused men were arrested on February 28 this year from their residence in Khawaja Ajmer Nagri for suspected involvement in other cases. Later, the kidnap victim Rashid identified his abductors during an identification parade. In the final arguments, the defence counsel said that his clients had been falsely implicated by the police.
The public prosecutor counter-argued that the victim had identified his abductors in an identification parade held in the court of judicial magistrate Ashfaq Mughal. He told the court that the accused men were habitual criminals who were involved in another kidnapping for ransom case and had received Rs 500,000 for the release of another person.
The prosecutor argued that the depositions of police inspector Zafar Iqbal, the judicial magistrate and the victim Rashid were proof of the accused men’s guilt and that police uniforms, which they used to commit crimes, had been recovered from their possession. He added that their accomplices Zahoor Ahmed Shah and Ghalib were absconding.
Kidnap for ransom case
The anti-terrorism court also deferred on Thursday the hearing of a kidnapping for ransom case after Abdul Nasir, counsel for the defence of accused Sheraz Ahmed, concluded the cross-examination of the investigation officer.
Judge Haq Nawaz Baloch of ATC-V fixed Saturday, September 1, for the next hearing when sub-inspector Tahir Naseer will be cross-examined by attorney Jamil Wirk, defence counsel for accused Qari Yaseen.
Sheraz Ahmed, Sheraz-ul-Haq, Khwaj Mohammed and Qari Yaseen are accused of kidnapping Ali Akbar from the Super Highway on February 17 this year.
IO Tahir Naseer told the court on August 29 that all the accused men had confessed during interrogations and two of them had been identified by the kidnap victim during an identification parade. The policeman stated that it had also been proved that the accused used to don police uniforms while committing crimes and such clothing had been recovered from their possession.
The depositions of kidnap victim Ali Akbar, his father Saifuddin and private witness Rehmatullah were recorded by the court on August 27. According to Special Public Prosecutor Mohammed Mazhar Qayyum, the statements of 14 prosecution witnesses were recorded by the court.
