KARACHI, Aug 5: The Sindh High Court released a detainee booked for murder after two months of confinement on bail and ordered quashment of two blind cases in which he was nominated as an accused after his recovery.
The detainee, Yasir Arafat, brother of notorious gangster Arshad Pappu, was picked up along with two cousins and six female relatives, who were later freed, at Moach Goth while going from Jehanabad (Shershah) in a Suzuki van on April 10.
The petitioner, his sister-in-law, alleged in her petition filed through Advocate S.A. Ghaffar that the group was intercepted by a Rangers squad but the allegation was strongly denied by the Rangers counsel, S. Mahmood Alam Rizvi.
The police also denied his arrest. He was, however, recovered by a high court bailiff from the anti-industrial crimes unit without any entry in the relevant register.
Producing him in the court, the unit claimed that he was required in two cases registered in 1995 under the Control of Narcotic Substances Act at the Chakiwara police station and a police official’s murder case registered on July 23 by the Pak Colony police station. The police alleged and the petitioner’s counsel conceded that the detainee had a record of involvement in criminal offences.
A division bench, comprising Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice Zia Pervez, directed the police not to act on the two FIRs relating to narcotics offences and release him on bail in the murder case subject to his furnishing Rs 100,000 as surety and executing a personal bond in the like amount. The murder case was ordered to be investigated by an impartial police officer. The investigation report would be placed before the high court for determination of the question of compensation.
BAIL FOR TRADER: Justice Mushir Alam, meanwhile, granted bail to a businessman implicated in four criminal cases at the behest of a police constable. Applicant Azad Khan was ordered to furnish security amounting to Rs 100,000 and execute a personal bond in the like amount.
Advocate Shakeel Ahmed, the applicant’s counsel, submitted that Azad was involved in bogus cases by constable Fazal Tawab, since retired, for nominating him (the constable) as an accused in the murder of his (Azad’s) brother, Ameer Zada, in April 2002. All cases were got registered at the SITE police station, where Fazal was posted.
The mode of operation, the lawyer said, was to book him in a blind case and procure statement of any person to implicate him in the offence. He had thus been kept behind bars since 2002 and was at present confined at the Central Prison, Karachi, facing trial in two blind FIRs.
