KARACHI, May 28: An anti-terrorism court indicted Mohammed Rafiq Jatt son of Dawood Jat in a kidnapping for ransom case. Judge Haq Nawaz Baloch of the ATC-5 fixed May 29 for recording the statement of the prosecution witnesses after the accused pleaded not guilty.

The case pertained to the kidnapping of a 20-year-old man, who remained captive for 52 days and was released after the payment of Rs7 million in ransom.

Syed Raza Abbas Zaidi was kidnapped on Aug 30, 2004 near Country Club Apartments, Sea View, where he had gone to meet Natasha on her request. The woman had called the victim on his mobile phone. The next day, the victim’s maternal uncle, Mansoor Javed, lodged a FIR against unknown kidnappers with the Darakhshan police.

Earlier, the same court had sentenced three accused, one of them a son of a senior superintendent of police and another of a district nazim, to death in the instant case.

However, later the Sindh High Court set aside the conviction of Asif Hussain Junejo, son of SSP Mumtaz Junejo,

his cousin Salahuddin alias Alauddin, son of Sanghar District Nazim Roshan Din Junejo, and ordered their release. The SHC, however, upheld the conviction of the third accused, Rustum Haider, an Iranian Baloch.

Five other accused —Natasha alias Sonia, Zeeshan alias Burger, Abu Sufiyan, Haji Mashooq Brohi, and Rafique Jatt, son of Dawood Jatt —had been shown absconders. Accused Rafiq Jatt surrendered before the court on May 3.

The kidnapper initially demanded Rs100 million for the release of Raza. However,

they agreed to release him for a ransom of Rs7 million after a series of negotiations with the family.

The ransom money was handed to Rustum by the victim’s family driver, Zubair, and his friend Mohammed Irfan, who identified Rustum during an identification parade before a judicial magistrate as well as in the trial court.