KARACHI: While the prosecution department decided not to approach the Supreme Court against the acquittal of three persons by the Sindh High Court in a 2017 case pertaining to kidnapping, rape and murder of a nine-year-old boy, it asked the Karachi police chief to reinvestigate the gruesome incident, it emerged on Sunday.

On April 13, an antiterrorism appellate bench of the SHC had allowed the appeals of three convicts against life imprisonment and overturned the trial court order. The bench pointed finger at the investigating and prosecuting agencies for their failure to prove the case saying an innocent child’s death went in vain.

The judges had added that the investigating officer did not investigate the case properly as the owners of cell phones used in the crime were not made part of the investigation and IO did not make any effort to collect DNA samples of the appellants despite the fact that the victim was also criminally assaulted.

Asks Karachi police chief to reinvestigate gruesome incident after SHC exonerated three due to faulty investigations

Sindh Prosecutor General Dr Faiz Shah told Dawn that his department had thoroughly examined the case and opted not to file the appeal against the acquittal of the three persons before the apex court.

He explained that the appeal could not sustain as there was no direct evidence against the acquitted accused persons, including the call data record (CDR) as well as DNA matching.

However, Dr Shah said that he had sent a letter to the Karachi police chief for reinvestigation of the case and to file a supplementary charge sheet against the “real culprits” in the light of the CDR and scientific/DNA evidence.

Section 9 of the Sindh Criminal Prosecution Service Act, 2009 empowers the prosecution department to address the issue of defective investigation and to recommend a disciplinary action against IOs responsible for faulty investigation.

A prosecutor must scrutinise the police investigation report and if the same was found to be defective, he/she may return the same within three days to the IO for removal of such defects, it added.

Additionally, as per Section 9-A (2) of the Act, “The Prosecutor General or the District Public Prosecutor may refer to the authority competent to initiate disciplinary proceedings under any law for the time being in force, to take disciplinary action against any public servant working in connection with investigation or prosecution, for any act committed by him and is prejudicial to the prosecution.”

Similarly, the courts can also act against the IOs for faulty investigation as they may be handed down up to two-year imprisonment and fine under Section 27 (punishment for defective investigation) of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997.

In December 2019, an ATC had sentenced Allah Ditta, Muohammad Irfan and Abdul Hafeez to life in prison on four counts after finding them guilty of abducting nine-year-old boy for ransom, criminally assaulting him during captivity, murdered him and dumped the body in a drain in September 2017 in Ittehad Town.

The convicts had approached the SHC and their appeals were allowed on April 13.

The SHC had observed that there was no eyewitness and the case of prosecution was mainly based on circumstantial evidence, but the IO, Inspector Akhtar Aziz, had miserably failed to investigate the case properly as he had not involved all possible parties, including owners of cell phones used in the crime, and did not make any effort to collect DNA samples of the appellants despite the fact that the victim was criminally assaulted.

The prosecution said that the child was abducted on Sept 20, 2017 near his house in Qaimkhani Colony. Five days later, the kidnappers had demanded Rs1.5m ransom for his release and sent a memory card to complainant containing pictures and audio recording of the victim.

On Oct 10, the complainant had paid Rs130,000 to abductors through mobicash on two mobile numbers, but they refused to release the victim and later his body was found in a sewer, it added.

The prosecution said that the accused persons were arrested in another case and during questioning disclosed their involvement in the present case and led the police to the places of kidnapping and murder.

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2022