KARACHI: A sessions court on Saturday once again deferred indictment of two suspects in a case pertaining to double murder of anchorperson Mureed Abbas and another individual over alleged shady investments worth of billions of rupees.

Police had detained and booked Atif Zaman and his brother Adil Zaman for allegedly killing his two business partners Mureed Abbas and Khizar Hayat in a Khayaban-i-Bukhari locality of DHA on the night of July 9, 2019.

On Saturday, the matter came up for hearing before the additional district and sessions judge (South) Faraz Ahmed Chandio for indictment of the suspects.

However, the key detained suspect, Atif Zaman, was not produced from the prison reportedly due to prevailing coronavirus pandemic.

The court was informed that he had also not engaged a defence counsel yet.

The second suspect, Adil Zaman, who is currently on post-arrest bail, and his defence counsel Zareen Satti were also absent reportedly due to the pandemic.

Advocate Jibran Asif for the complainant, Sidra, Mureed Abbas’s wife, was not present, while Advocate Waqar Alam Abbasi for the legal heirs of the victim Khizar Hayat was present.

The judge put off the hearing and deferred indictment of the suspects till July 2. He issued a production order directing the prison authorities to produce Atif Zaman before the court on the next date.

Since January 9, the matter has been coming up for indictment of the suspects in the present case. But the same is being deferred either due to failure of the suspects, Atif and Adil, to appear before the court or to engage their defence counsel.

Minors’ rape case

An antiterrorism court on Friday directed the prosecution to bind investigating officers to produce witnesses in identical cases pertaining to rape of minor children.

A male suspect is facing trial in identical cases pertaining to kidnapping and rape of minor girls in different areas of Karachi.

On Friday, the matter came up before the ATC-X judge for recording testimonies of witnesses of the prosecution. The accused was produced from prison. Neither the investigating officers appeared nor were any witnesses produced.

Therefore, the judge directed the prosecution to bind the IOs to produce remaining witnesses along with the case property on the next date. The hearing was adjourned till June 19.

The accused, a 30-year-old labourer, resident of Jhang in Punjab, has been charged with abducting five underage girls and subjecting them to sexual assault within the remit of the Shah Latif Town, Sukkan and Quaidabad police stations between 2015 and 2018.

Police detained him during a bungled attempt to abduct a sixth minor victim to rape her within the remit of the Shah Latif Town police station.

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2020