KARACHI, Oct 30: An anti-terrorism court on Tuesday awarded life imprisonment to a couple for kidnapping a doctor and receiving ransom from his family.
According to the prosecution, Dr Mohammad Abrar Younus, 40, and his wife Huma, 35, kidnapped Dr Abdul Wahab in the Shahrah-i-Noorjehan police limits on April 12 and received ransom for his release.
Judge Ghulam Ali Samtio of the ATC-1, who conducted the trial, was to announce the verdict on Oct 29 in the case against the couple, but deferred the order to Oct 30 as accused Dr Abrar Younus suddenly fell ill and was taken to hospital. The court observed that the verdict could not be announced in the accused’s absence.
The court also fined both the accused Rs200,000 each and ordered the confiscation of their properties to recover the fine. In case of non-payment of the fine, the accused will have to undergo an additional six-month imprisonment.According to the charge-sheet, the couple had invited Dr Abdul Wahab to their residence in North Karachi to attend a circumcision function and upon his arrival, they tied him to a bed and sought a ransom of Rs300,000 for his release.
Later, they agreed to reduce the amount to Rs40,000 and received it from the victim’s wife at an intersection near their home.
The couple was nabbed by police and AVCC personnel while they were on their way back home on a motorcycle with the ransom money at an intersection in North Karachi on April 15. The police registered a case (FIR 202/07) at the Shahrah-i-Noor Jahan police station. As the judge announced the verdict, Huma burst into tears while her husband, claiming to be ill, was not present there. She was accompanied by all of her three children. The eldest is a daughter aged about seven, the second is a son, about five, and the last one is a daughter of about four.
All the children are stated to be from her former husband, Mohammad Aslam, as after her divorce the children remained with her. Dr Abrar Younus is her second husband. Their marriage had taken place about three months before the kidnapping.
They had no relative in the courtroom to look after the children, who were taken to the prison along with them.
During the trial, the convicted woman, Huma, had claimed in her statement that Dr Abdul Wahab wished to marry her after she was divorced by Mohammad Aslam. She told the court that she had been working in a private clinic frequented by Dr Abdul Wahab, who had started taking interest in her during that period.
She also claimed that Dr Wahab had taken Rs150,000 from her for a joint business venture and was not returning the money to her.
Huma alleged that her refusal to marry him had prompted the complainant to stage a kidnap drama and implicate her and her husband in the case.
The defence counsel, Ranan Abdul Qayyum, cross examined the kidnap victim on Oct 22 and put many questions to him. The counsel told the court that Dr Abdul Wahab was not kidnapped but he had earlier wished (soon after her divorce) to marry Huma and on her refusal he hatched the conspiracy against her.
During the final arguments, on Oct 24 the defence counsel submitted that the case was based on a concocted story and that his clients were implicated in a false case.
Special Public Prosecutor Niamat Ali Randhawa during the final arguments told the court that the accused had been arrested red-handed by police and AVCC personnel, who had also seized the ransom amount from the accused.
He said Dr Wahab was recovered from the residence of the accused couple. He was found tied to a bed. Moreover, he said, the surgical kit and the motorcycle owned by the kidnap victim were also found in the vicinity.
The prosecutor argued that Huma had submitted no proof of the transaction she claimed to have done with the complainant. Nor had she produced any affidavit or witness to substantiate her claim that he had given any amount to the complainant for a joint business. He also pointed out many contradictions in the statements given by Huma.
He said the record of telephone calls made by the accused for seeking ransom had also proved that the accused had repeatedly called Meraj Bano, wife of Dr Abdul Wahab, to demand ransom for his release.
According to Mr Randhawa, some of the calls from the same telephone number had been made minutes before the handing over of the ransom amount to the accused.
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 recorded the statement of an official of the Telenor Telecom Company, on Oct 4 in the kidnap case, who produced in court the entire record regarding the ownership of the numbers and telephone calls.
The court also recorded the statement of an official of the Warid Telecom Company in the case on Oct 3.
Judge Ghulam Ali Samtio also 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.
He also recorded statements of the shopkeepers and neighbours of the accused couple. The owner of the house, where the couple had lived, was also called and he confirmed their identity and said that after their arrest the house had not been rented out.
KARACHI, Oct 30: An anti-terrorism court on Tuesday awarded life imprisonment to a couple for kidnapping a doctor and receiving ransom from his family.
