KARACHI, Dec 14: The Sindh High Court on Wednesday acquitted four convicts in a murder and kidnapping-for-ransom case. Asif alias Sajjad, Shirazuddin Farooqui, Athar Mehmood Khan, Khurram and Ms Shabana, wife of Mohammad Wasi, were accused of kidnapping 22-year-old Raghib Abbas on April 1, 2004, demanding Rs 1 million for his release, torturing him and throwing him in front of his residence in Gulistan-i-Jauhar after inflicting fatal injuries the same day. The victim was called to an address in Gulistan-i-Jauhar on internet in the course of ‘chatting’.
Raghib, whose father worked in Saudi Arabia, was taken to hospital immediately by his mother and maternal uncle and was put on a ventilator. He succumbed to his injuries on April 16. The victim named his kidnappers and killers in his dying statement but a first information report was lodged much later.
The case was tried by an anti-terrorism court, which tried the four male accused and declared co-accused Shabana an absconder. All four accused were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment and fined Rs 100,000 each. They challenged their conviction and sentences through Advocates Khwaja Naveed Ahmed, Azizullah K. Shaikh, Naiyer Zaidi and Ashfaq Ahmed.
The appellants’ counsel said the inexplicable delay in registration of the FIR was fatal to the prosecution case. The ‘dying declaration’ was allegedly made by Raghib on April 3 but he died on April 16. The prosecution said Raghib was injected with poison and the delay in FIR was caused by exhumation of his body. The victim was put on a ventilator soon after his ‘dying declaration’ and breathed his last in that condition.
Allowing the appeal, a division bench, comprising Justices Mohammad Afzal Soomro and Rehmat Hussain Jafri, set aside the conviction and sentences by a short order and for reasons to be recorded later.
The bench acquitted four other accused convicted and sentenced to life terms and a fine of Rs 50,000 each by the anti-terrorism court for Hyderabad-Mirpurkhan division. Mohammad Saleh, Cheetan, Abdul Ghani and Ali Nawaz were accused of carrying out a bomb blast on railway tracks in the jurisdiction of the Tando Adam police station in December 2001. A portion of the track and a railway engine standing on it were damaged by the blast.
Appearing for the appellants, Advocate A.Q. Halepota submitted that prosecution case was based on conjectures and surmises. The police claimed to have tracked down the accused from their footprints. It also claimed to have recovered from them a pamphlet on bomb making. However, the only piece of evidence relied upon by prosecution was exculpatory confessional statement of a co-accused, which was not admissible under the law.
The bench allowed the appeal by a short order and directed the police to release the appellants forthwith if not required in any other case.
