KARACHI, Aug 25: The Anti-terrorism Court-I headed by Ghulam Ali Samtio on Saturday reserved its judgment in a kidnapping for ransom case till Aug 31 after hearing final arguments by the prosecution and defence. The case pertained to the kidnapping of a seven-year-old boy, Nauman, in the limits of Ibrahim Haidery police station on January 9, 2007.

An FIR (No 06/07) lodged on January 11, 2007 stated that the accused, Mohammad Fahad son of Abdul Ghafoor, and Saifullah son of Ghulam Mustafa, had kidnapped the boy and demanded Rs300,000 as ransom from his father, Qadir Hussain. During the negotiations, the accused reduced the amount to Rs35,000, it added.

However, Qadir alerted police before making the payment and the accused were nabbed by a joint team of the police and the Anti-Violent Crime Cell.

Later, the boy was recovered in an apartment in Al-Furqan Plaza, Gulshan-i-Iqbal.

The accused were indicted on July 18. The defence counsel, Mushtaq Ahmed Joyia, submitted that Qadir Hussain, in connivance with the police, had implicated the accused in a false case. He informed the court that Qadir had an amount of Rs50,000 outstanding against him on account of the eggs supplied by Fahad and Saifullah. The counsel said that Qadir had played this trick to avoid the payment.

Special Public Prosecutor Niamat Ali Randhawa said that the accused, hailing from Rahimyar Khan, used to visit Qadir’s shop for supply of eggs. He said they had abducted Qadir’s son and kept him in the house of Mohammad Arshad for two days. Arshad was one of the eight prosecution witnesses produced in court during the course of the trial.

Another prosecution witness, Mehmoodullah, also deposed that the accused were arrested after the ransom money had been paid.

Kidnappers’ gang