KARACHI, March 14: The prosecution in the murder and kidnapping for ransom case of a young man concluded on Tuesday its evidence with the deposition of the investigation officer as the last prosecution witness.
The case pertained to the kidnapping and killing of 21-year-old Muneebul Haq, whose body was recovered in Hyderabad.
Judge Haq Nawaz Baloch of the ATC-5 fixed March 18 for recording the statement of the accused after defence counsel Khawaja Naveed, Nasir Awan and Abbas Naqvi cross examined investigation officer Inspector Tahir Naseer.
Abdul Asif, Mohammed Atif and Rizwan Khan, all of them in their early 20s, were charged with the kidnapping and murder the young man.
According to prosecution, Atif was the victim’s friend, also living in the same vicinity. On Oct 10, 2005, he along with his accomplices kidnapped Muneeb and took him to Hyderabad.
The kidnappers contacted the victim’s father, Qazi Mashhudul Haq, a bank manager, from victim’s cellular phone and they initially demanded Rs1 million for his release. The next day kidnappers took the young victim to Hyderabad where they slaughtered him in a graveyard.
Meanwhile, Asif kept on calling the victim’s father and he agreed to accept Rs200,000 as ransom. However, the kidnappers did not turn up to receive the money at the designated place.
The family, which had initially reported the missing of the victim on Oct 12 with the Surjani police, learnt about Muneeb’s killing in Hyderabad through newspapers on Oct 17. Later on Oct 23, the shattered family reported the kidnapping matter to the police and got an FIR lodged against unknown culprits.
The investigation was assigned to the Anti-violent Crime Cell, which tracked down Asif with the help of record of the victim’s phone. Asif was arrested on Oct 25 in the morning and his two alleged accomplices were arrested in the evening in Hyderabad on a lead given by him. The police also seized the knife, used in the killing of the victim, from the graveyard.
RANSOM CASE: An anti-terrorism court summoned the officials of a mobile phone company in a kidnapping for ransom case on the request of the prosecution.
Judge Ghulam Ali Samito of the ATC-1 ordered the officials to appear on March 17 before the court along with relevant record of the mobile phones of the victim’s father and the kidnappers.
Zafar Iqbal is being tried for kidnapping a nine-year-old boy, Arshad Raza son of Mohammad Raza, on Jan 1, this year within the limits of the PIB police.
According to prosecution, the accused along with his two absconding accomplices kidnapped the boy from in front of his house around 2:30pm. Later, he called the victim’s father, an ice dealer, and demanded Rs7 million as ransom.
However, the kidnappers allegedly agreed to Rs4 million as ransom after a series of negotiations with the victim’s father. It was alleged that on Jan 17 the ice dealer paid Rs300,000 to the kidnappers at an appointed place near Punjab Colony.
While the Citizen-Police Liaison Committee was trying to track down the kidnappers through their phone calls, the police on Jan 20 received a tip-off about the presence of kidnappers and the victim at a house in Gulshan-i-Iqbal.
The police accordingly raided the house and arrested accused Zafar following a shootout. The abducted kid was also recovered from there.
