KARACHI: An antiterrorism court acquitted three accused, said to be associated with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, in the murder case of former town nazim Dr Pervaiz Mehmood for lack of evidence.

Syed Masood Ali, alias Masood Kala; Mohammad Arif, alias Alto; and Syed Badar Ali, alias Babar Mota along with their 11 alleged accomplices were charged with killing Liaquatabad Town’s former nazim belonging to the Jamaat-i-Islami near the KDA Chowrangi in North Nazimabad on Sept 17, 2012.

The ATC-XVII judge, who conducted the trial in the judicial complex inside the central prison, pronounced his judgment reserved earlier after recording evidence and final arguments from both sides.

The judge wrote that the “prosecution failed to bring home guilt of the accused beyond any reasonable doubt and for giving benefit of doubt to an accused it is not necessary that there should be many circumstances creating doubt.”

Therefore, the judge extended the benefit of the doubt to the accused Masood Ali, Arif and Babar Ali and acquitted them of charges of murder and terrorism in the present case.

The court ordered the prison authorities to release them forthwith, if their custody was not required in any other case.

A connected case against the fourth detained suspect, Kanwar Imran Ali Khan, alias Imran Ejaz, is pending trial before the same court.

The court issued perpetual arrest warrants for 10 absconders, including former in-charge of MQM’s Karachi Tanzeemi Committee Hammad Siddiqui and Faisal, alias Mota, who had already been sentenced to death in a case pertaining to the murder of Geo TV’s reporter Wali Khan Babar.

The case against the absconders, who also included former sector in-charge Faisal, Imran Aijaz Niazi, Tahir Qadiyani, Zubair, alias Papa, Rehman Qureshi, Sameer Nai, Faizan Ilyas and Abdul Rehman — was kept on dormant file till their arrest or surrender.

According to the prosecution, Masood Ali, alias Kala, was arrested in North Nazimabad on Nov 30, 2018 and explosives and illicit weapons were recovered from him.

It further mentioned that during the initial interrogation, Ali allegedly disclosed that he was associated with a militant wing allegedly run by the MQM and the then in-charge of the MQM Karachi Tanzeemi Committee, Hammad Siddiqui, had given him the task of killing Dr Pervaiz Mehmood.

Therefore, Masood allegedly confessed to have gunned down Dr Mehmood along with his accomplices, including Rehan, said to be a joint sector in-charge of the MQM, Asif Alto, Faizan Ilyas, Sameer Nai and Shakil Mota, the prosecution added.

The alleged suspected hitman also named Imran Ali Niazi; Tahir; Zubair, alias Papa and Abdul Rehman to be members of the alleged hit squad.

According to the prosecution, Masood allegedly confessed to have gunned down Dr Mehmood along with his accomplices, the report mentioned.

The judge noted that the evidence brought by the prosecution suggested that there was no eyewitness of the alleged incident as was admitted by investigating officer Shabbir Hussain, adding that there was no direct or indirect evidence against three accused connecting them with the offence.

He noted that the IO himself admitted that he did not get the confessional statements of the detained men recorded before the judicial magistrate, nor he got arranged an identification parade of the accused before the judicial magistrate.

“The only evidence against accused is their extrajudicial confessions before the police respectively after the arrest, which is not admissible evidence,” he noted.

He added that mere identification by each accused of the place where the body of deceased Dr Mehmood was thrown and the place of recovery of the motorcycle allegedly used in committing the offence could not be termed as discovery within the meanings of Article 40 of the Qanun-i-Shahadat, 1984, as the said places were already in the knowledge of the police and the complainant party, “therefore, it was also inadmissible evidence”.

The judge mentioned that former IO Inspector Javed Ahmed said that the empties of the spent bullets were already collected from the place of incident, but failed to produce any memo of such recovery as evidence.

“It is further observed that there is no recovery of pistol from any of (three) accused that could connect the recovered empties with the accused,” the judge pointed out and held that “hence, such recovery of empties which have been received after delay of ten days in Forensic Science Laboratory would be inconsequential.”

The judge also wrote that in their statement, recorded under Section 342 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the accused deposed that they were picked up by the law enforcement agencies before their arrests were shown in the memo of arrest.

Defence counsel for the accused Syed Masood Ali produced evidence showing that his wife had petitioned the Sindh High Court after he was taken away by Rangers officials.

He also produced a copy of the judgment regarding the accused in a case pertaining to allegedly possessing explosives and terrorism dated May 21.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2019