KARACHI, Oct 18: Owing to the non-production of accused Dr Mohammad Abrar and his wife Huma, the kidnapping for ransom case of Dr Abdul Wahab in an anti-terrorism court was deferred to Oct 22.
Special Public Prosecutor Niamat Ali Randhawa told Dawn that the prosecution witnesses waited till 11am to testify in the case but the case could not be processed in the absence of the accused.
According to the prosecution, the accused had invited Dr Abdul Wahab to their residence in North Karachi on April 12 in the Shahrah-i-Noor Jehan police limits on the pretext of celebrating the circumcision of their child, but on his arrival they tied him to a bed and demanded Rs300,000 for his release.
As a result of telephone negotiations, the kidnappers agreed to accept Rs40,000. They asked his wife, Meraj Bano, to bring the amount to a certain place near their residence.
Both the accused riding on a motorcycle had received the amount from the kidnap victim’s wife at an intersection in North Karachi. As they received the money and were on way to their residence, the police and Anti-Violent Crime Cell staff intercepted and arrested them and recovered the doctor on April 15.
Judge Ghulam Ali Samtio of ATC-I, who is conducting the trial in the kidnap case, visited the area in North Karachi on Oct 5, where accused Dr Mohammad Abrar Younus and his wife Huma had allegedly kept Dr Abdul Wahab after kidnapping him for ransom, in the limits of the Shahrah-i-Noor Jehan police station, on April 12.
He also recorded statements of the shopkeepers and neighbours of the accused couple. The owner of the house, where the couple lived, was also called and he confirmed their identity and said that after their arrest the house had not been rented out.
The court had also recorded statements of Norbert Almeida, assistant manager of the Telenor Telecom Company; and Usman Maftoon, manager of the Warid Telecom Company.
Telephone connections of the two companies, 0321-8721899 (owned by Dr Wahab) and 0345-2537667 (owned by Huma), were used for making ransom calls to 0321-2537667 on April 12 and 16.
The court had ordered the production of the record of these two mobile phone connections and the duration of the calls after an objection was raised by the defence counsel that the accused had nothing to do with those telephone numbers.
The court had directed the Telenor official to produce the record of the telephone calls made through the Telenor number on Oct 4, and issued bailable arrest warrants for Mr Almeida for his failure to appear in court to testify in the case.
However, Mr Almeida appeared in court on Oct 4 and produced the required record which proved that telephone 0345-2537667 had been used to make calls for ransom on April 15.
According to the special public prosecutor, Niamat Ali Randhawa, some of the calls from the same telephone number had been made minutes before handing over of the ransom amount to the accused.
