January 15, 2008	Tuesday	Muharram 05, 1429

KARACHI, Jan 14: The judicial magistrate, Central, Khadim Hussein Chand, on Monday indicted civil rights campaigner, Mohammad Iqbal Kazmi, in a fraud case.

The accused pleaded not guilty and opted to contest the case. The judge has fixed Jan 24 as the next date of hearing and summoned all the prosecution witnesses to appear in court to testify in the case.

The investigation officer, ASI Syed Zulfiqar Ali, had submitted a final charge-sheet to the court on Dec 14, in which he said that the accused, Mr Kazmi, had hired four cars from Mohammad Iqbal, son of Mohammad Ikram, a manager of a private rent-a-car company on Rs24,000 per month. But the accused had neither returned the fourth car nor paid the rent.

A case (FIR 98/07) was registered by the police on the complaint of Mohammad Iqbal under Section 406 of the Pakistan Penal Code on Aug 22, 2007. According to the complainant, the accused had hired four cars – AGO-338, AJV-994, ATV-885 and ATM-242. He neither paid the rent nor returned the last car.

ASI Zulfiqar Ali, Inspector Shahnawaz Memon, ASI Ali Ghour, Constable Kamal Nasir, Mohammad Iqbal, Javid Akthar, Mumtaz, Azeem Akthar and Sher Khan will testify as prosecution witnesses in the case.

Indian fishermen jailed

The civil judge and judical magistrate, West, Ghulam Yaseen Kolachi, on Monday sent six Indian fishermen to jail on a 14-day judicial remand.

According to the prosecution, the Maritime Security Agency detained the Indian fishermen along with their fishing boat on Jan 12 for fishing illegally in Pakistani waters. A case (FIR No10/08) was registered against the fishermen under Sections 3/4 and 3/9 of Fisheries Act at Docks police station.