KARACHI: An antiterrorism court (ATC) has acquitted two men of kidnapping for ransom due to a lack of evidence against them.

The accused — Muhammad Aamir, alias Jaliyawala and Shoaib Jamal — were charged with involvement in abducting and demanding ransom money from the family of Atif, who was picked up by three to four people within the remit of the Aziz Bhatti police station in June 2021.

The ATC-VI judge, who conducted the trial in the Judicial Complex inside the Karachi central prison, ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges against the accused.

The court directed the jail authority to release Aamir if he was not required in any other case, while it cancelled the surety bond of Sohaib, who had appeared before the court on bail.

It is pertinent to mention here that another accused, Hussain Jamal, has been declared an absconder, and the case against him has been placed on dormant.

According to the prosecution, complainant Muhammad Kashif informed the police that his brother, Atif, had come to Pakistan from South Africa for medical treatment. On June 20, 2021, while Atif was sitting with friends at a tea café near Block 16 Gulshan-i-Iqbal, around three to four people arrived in a car, identified themselves from the narcotics force, and took Atif with them.

Subsequently, the complainant travelled from South Africa to Pakistan and filed a petition in court regarding his

brother’s forced disappearance.

However, the complainant received a phone call demanding a ransom of over Rs1.5 billion. Additionally, Atif’s friends, Aamir, Sohaib and Jamal (the accused persons), received Rs400,000 to provide information about Atif’s whereabouts, however, they could not provide the information after receiving the said amount, the complainant claimed.

After two months of Atif’s disappearance, he called his brother and informed him that he was in Balochistan and that the kidnappers had released him. The complainant then lodged an FIR against Sohaib, Aamir, and Jamal.

During the trial, the defence counsel for the accused, Abid Zaman and Osama Ali, argued that the prosecution had failed to prove its case against their clients. They emphasised that the complainant had falsely implicated their client, Aamir, who was trying to assist in locating his friend, Atif.

The defence further contended that the only evidence the prosecution had against Aamir was a statement recorded under Section 164 of the CrPC before a magistrate. In that statement, Aamir confessed to being involved in Atif’s abduction. However, during the trial, in his statement under Section 342 of the CrPC, the accused retracted his confession, claiming it was obtained under duress.

A case was registered under Sections 364 (kidnapping or abducting for extorting property, valuable security, etc) and 34 (common intention) read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2024