KARACHI, Sept 7: The judicial magistrate-12, Central, Abdul Zahoor Chandio, on Friday declined to accept the application of the investigation officer (IO) of Taimuria police station, seeking more time for collecting evidence in the boiler blast case. The boiler had exploded in a towel-dyeing and bleaching factory in North Karachi killing nine people and injuring 25 on July 24, 2007.

The court directed the IO to appear personally and submit a final charge-sheet in the case.

The judicial magistrate (JM) had lodged a complaint against the IO, Mohammad Ilyas, with the senior superintendents of police, Central and West, on Aug 30, for not complying with the court’s orders regarding submission of a complete charge-sheet against accused Akhtar Hussain Baloch, owner of the factory.

The IO, instead of appearing in court, had sent an application requesting the court to give him a few extra days for completion of the charge-sheet.

It was stated that despite the lapse of many weeks the IO had failed to submit the final charge-sheet.

The JM again wrote letters to the police officials, including the CCPO, DIG, and TPO of North Karachi, and complained against the IO for not complying with the court’s orders.

As a result of the complaints to his superiors, the IO had appeared in court on Sept 3, but failed to submit a complete charge-sheet.

He had submitted an application to the court seeking three days for the submission of the charge-sheet in the case but did not do what he had promised, said a court source.

He said that the delay had been caused due to the non-submission of the report by the inspector of the Boiler Inspection Wing of the Directorate of Industries, Anwar Ali. The court fixed Sept 7 for the submission of the complete charge-sheet and also directed the inspector of the Boiler Inspection Wing to submit his findings to the IO prior to the next hearing.The IO had submitted an interim charge-sheet to the court on Aug 9, but the JM directed the IO to submit the final charge-sheet so that the case could be processed further.

The court had fixed Aug 29 for the submission of a complete charge-sheet, but the IO did not appear in court and submitted an application stating that his absence was due to his preoccupation with the investigation of another criminal case.

An FIR (359/07) was registered at the Taimuria police station under Sections 322/H-2,427 and 109 of the Pakistan Penal Code after the boiler blast.

The factory owner was arrested on the day of the accident while the boiler operator, Mohammed Ahsanullah, escaped to his native area in Punjab. The police arrested him on July 31.

The factory is situated in a shantytown, Malik Anwar Goth, Sector 15-B, North Karachi.