KARACHI: An antiterrorism court (ATC) on Wednesday acquitted three officials of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and a private person in a kidnapping for ransom case.

The ATC-I judge exonerated the accused NAB officers — Sarwaich Shaikh, Muhammad Gul, alias Gul Afridi, and Muhammad Bilal Anwar — and private person Iqbal Hussain Channa for lack of evidence.

They were charged with kidnapping an employee of the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) in Hyderabad, Sikandar Ali, for ransom in the Seaview area in November 2017.

After hearing arguments and recording evidence from both sides, the court ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges against the accused persons.

According to the prosecution, complainant Sikandar Ali, who had also worked at the office of the Accountant General in 2011, had registered a case against accused Iqbal Channa and the three NAB officials stating that they called him at the parking area of a cinema, situated at commercial area, Khayaban-i-Muslim near Seaview and when he reached there they kidnapped him and demanded Rs10 million for his release.

He alleged that the accused also snatched Rs25,000 from him.

However, the defence counsel took the plea that the complainant refused to identify the accused in court.

He added that his clients were falsely implicated in this case.

A case was registered at the Darakhshan police station under Sections 365-A (kidnapping or abducting for extorting property, valuable security, etc), 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2024