KARACHI, Aug 31: The district and sessions judge, South, Agha Rafique Ahmed Khan, acquitted on Thursday the ruling party MPA Murad Ali Shah in the Eshwar Lal case. The judge also confirmed the pre-arrest bail granted to five PPP MPAs in the case.
The judge acquitted the ruling party MPA on his application for acquittal filed under Section 265-K of the CrPC. The judge also allowed the application of the investigation officer seeking withdrawal of the case against the MPA belonging to PML (Q).
Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, leader of opposition in the provincial assembly, and three other PPP MPAs, Haji Munawar Ali Abbasi, Mohammad Nawaz Chandio, Mohammad Saleem Hingoro and Murad Ali Shah, son of former Sindh Chief Minister Syed Abdullah Shah, are accused in the case. Represented by Shahadat Awan, the PPP MPAs had obtained bail before arrest.
The MPAs were booked under Sections 324, 506-B, 109 and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code for attempted murder on the complaint of the ruling party MPA by the Preedy police on June 26.
The police had cited Murad Ali Shah as the fifth accused in the case. The MPA from Naushero Feroz, Murad Ali Shah, belonged to the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Q) and the court had also issued his non-bailable warrants for arrest. The ruling party MPA, however, obtained pre-arrest bail on the grounds that he was the namesake of the actual suspect in the case.Later, the investigation officer of the case, sub-inspector Munir Ahmed, moved an application before the court praying it to issue non-bailable warrants for the arrest of PPP MPA Murad Ali Shah.
The IO submitted that MPA Murad Ali Shah was named in the interim challan without his parentage. He said during the investigation he came to know of the name of his father, which was Abdullah Shah, and that the accused MPA belonged to the PPP and was a resident of Sehwan. He also stated that a wrong address of the accused was mentioned in the interim charge-sheet.
The IO stated that Syed Murad Ali Shah son of Syed Noor Ahmed Shah, who obtained bail before arrest in the case, was not an accused in the case.
The ruling party MPA had moved an application for his acquittal under Section 265-K of the Criminal Procedure Code. He submitted that his implication in the case was not only a big question mark on the face of the prosecution, but it also called upon the ongoing investigation for the departmental and the judicial inquiry against the investigation officer.
The ruling party MPA stated that it was now proved that he was implicated in the case either due to severe kind of negligence and fault in the course of investigation, or lack of coordination and information between investigation officer and Sindh Assembly authorities, who provided wrong information to the investigation officer about the address of the accused.
MPA Eshwar stated that he was told about the illness of Ms Marri and on June 21 and he inquired about her wellbeing through a note on a piece of paper during the assembly session.
The ruling party MPA alleged that the MPA read the note and later gave it to the leader of opposition, who along with Ms Marri and other PPP MPAs went out of the assembly hall.
