KARACHI, Feb 1: A judicial magistrate remanded on Friday Ajmal Pahari to jail custody in connection with a murder case.

Shahnawaz aka Ajmal Pahari had been presented in court in 2004 for a murder case lodged at the Liaquatabad police station. The magistrate sent him to prison under a judicial remand till Feb 13 and directed the investigating officer to submit a charge-sheet.

The suspect was arrested in New Karachi by the Criminal Investigation Department in March 2011 for alleged involvement in over 100 targeted killings.

Ajmal Pahari was charge-sheeted in 18 cases but in September 2012 he was acquitted in 12, and he got bail in the remaining cases.

On Jan 19, the defence counsel pleaded before a sessions court that instead of releasing the suspect, jail authorities detain him under the Maintenance of Public Ordinance (MPO) without any justification. However, the same was recently challenged in the Sindh High Court. Subsequently, the defence lawyer alleged that the jailauthorities handed the suspect over to law-enforcement agencies between Jan 17 and 18.

However, the police claimed that the suspect was arrested again on Jan 30 in Federal B Area in connection with four murder cases.

The police produced Ajmal Pahari in court on Jan 31 in connection with two of the murder cases and one court granted one-day police remand while the other remanded the suspect into jail custody. The second case was pertaining to the murder of an unknown person in May 2008 in Bilal Colony.

Two convicted of robbery

A sessions court sentenced two men for five years in prison on Friday in connection with a robbery case.

The court found Shahzad and Rauf guilty of robbing people and causing them harm in January last year within the remit of the Iqbal Market police station. They had been arrested by a police party.

The case (FIR 149/12) had been registered under Section 394 (voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Additional district and sessions judge (west) Abdullah Channa, who conducted the trial, also imposed a fine of Rs5,000 on both suspects and in case of non-payment they would have to spend an additional month in prison.

The court also extended the benefit of Section 382-B (period of detention to be considered while awarding sentence of imprisonment) of the criminal procedure code to the convicts.