January 25, 2006	Wednesday	Zilhaj 24, 1426

KARACHI, Jan 24: An anti-terrorism court acquitted on Tuesday an accused in a kidnapping for ransom case and issued show-cause notice to the investigation officer as the accused was already in jail at the time of offence.

Judge Syed Saghir Hussain Zaidi of the ATC-3 exonerated Abdus Salam from the charges on his acquittal plea filed under Section 265-K of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). The case pertained to the kidnapping of Zakir Rehman, a grain dealer, and his two young sons for ransom, who were released by their captors after the payment of Rs3.4 million.

According to prosecution, the trader was going home on his bike on Oct 15, 2004 when eight occupants of a Suzuki pick-up intercepted him in Chakiwara and took him away at gunpoint.

Later, the kidnappers contacted the victim’s family and demanded Rs4 million for his release. After a series of negotiations with the victim’s family the kidnappers released the trader after receiving a part payment of Rs500,000.

It was alleged that the kidnappers, however, made victim’s two sons, Asadullha, 13, and Haseebur Rehman, 9, hostage when they released him after the captivity of 10 days, asking him to arrange the remaining Rs3.5 million for the release of the children.

According to prosecution, victim Zakir Hussain paid further Rs2.9 million to the kidnappers and got his sons released after another 10 days. The kidnappers allegedly kept on demanding the remaining Rs600,000 from the trader and threatened him of dire consequences in case of non-payment.

The trader finally reported the matter to the police, who initially arrested five accused -– Akram alias Shaheen, Gul Hasan Brohi, Abdul Jalil, Abdus Salam and Nadir.

However, later the ATC-3 ordered the release of accused Nadir after the police withdrew charges against him under Section 169 of the CrPC. The police submitted charge-sheet against four accused and showed eight others as absconding accused. The absconders were: Razzaq Commando, Sarwar, Shahid, Faiz, Abdul Hameed, Mohammed Rashid, Mohammad Ayub and Khuda Bux.

Accused Abdus Salam filed an application for his acquittal under Section 265-K, taking the plea of alibi. He submitted before the court that he was already in the judicial custody and was lodged at the District Malir jail on Oct 15, 2004 when the incident occurred.

The judge summoned the jail superintendent and called for the jail record, which also showed that accused Abdus Salam was in the prison on the day of incident.

The judge issued show-cause notice to investigation officer Sub-inspector Abdus Sami Jahan and put off the hearing till Wednesday.