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KARACHI, April 7: A prosecution witness in the extortion case against Lyari gangster Arshad Pupoo was declared hostile as the prosecution rested its case on Monday.
‘Eyewitness’ Javed Aslam refused to identify the accused before the judge of the Anti-Terrorism Court-I, Ghulam Ali Samtio, on Monday.
The court declared the eyewitness hostile on the request of the prosecution. Special public prosecutor Niamat Ali Randhawa cross-examined the witness.
The complainant in the case, Fareed Khan, had also refused to identify the accused on the previous hearing. He had been declared a hostile witness by the court.
Arshad Pupoo, Farhan and Shakeel are facing charges of demanding Rs200,000 as extortion from the complainant. The co-accused, Ghaffar Zikri, Ghaffar Dholi, and Asif alias Asifa, have already been declared absconders in the case.
On Monday, the court recorded the statements of three other prosecution witnesses, sub-inspectors Wazir Mohammad and Mohammad Naeem, and investigation officer Sultan Ahmed.
SI Wazir Mohammad testified in court that Fareed Khan and his friend, Javed Aslam, came to the Kalri police station and asked him to lodge a case against the accused as they were demanding extortion money from Fareed Khan.
SI Naeem deposed that he, along with a police party, had arrested one of the accused, Shakeel, after a shootout.
The hearing was adjourned till April 9 to record the statements of the accused.
A case (FIR No 79/2005) was registered against Arshad Pupoo, Farhan, Shakeel, Ghaffar Zikri, Ghaffar Dholi and Asif alias Asifa under Section 387/34 (putting a person in fear of death or of grievous hurt in order to commit extortion) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7(H) (punishment for acts of terrorism) of the Anti-Terrorism Act on March 23, 2005, at the Kalri police station.
According to the prosecution, Shakeel was arrested on the night of March 24, 2005, while Arshad Pupoo and Farhan have been in jail.
Life term set aside
The Sindh High Court has ordered the release of three men who had been sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of a bank robbery, adds PPI.
Applicants Muhammad Tahir, Ali Asghar and Nisar had moved the high court against the order of November 28, 2006 passed by an additional sessions judge, south, sentencing them to life imprisonment and imposing a fine of Rs50,000 on each of them under Section 395 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
The appellants were convicted on charges of looting over Rs8.4 million from the Timber Market Branch of Muslim Commercial Bank on December 10, 2001.
Their counsel, Abdul Razzaq, said that the case registered against his clients was mala fide because the statements of the witnesses were contradictory and no further identification parade of the accused was conducted by the police.
He submitted that police had not deposited the recovered amount of Rs3,545,000 in treasury office so far. He requested the court to set aside the order and release the appellants since the prosecution had failed to prove the case against his clients. He also urged that police be directed to deposit the recovered amount in government’s treasury office under the law.
After hearing the matter, the division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court Justice Azizullah M. Memon and Justice Arshad Noor Khan issued the order, stating that the appeals were partly allowed and partly dismissed. The conviction recorded by the trial court against appellants had been commuted under Section 411 of the Pakistan Penal Code and police were directed to release the appellants forthwith, it added.
The court also directed the police to deposit the recovered amount in the treasury office.
