April 12, 2008	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 5, 1429

KARACHI, April 11: An anti-terrorism court on Friday acquitted the well-known Lyari gangster Arshad Pappu and others in a case pertaining to extortion and a police encounter.

The judge of ATC-I, Ghulam Ali Samtio, announced the verdict after recording final arguments from both sides. According to the verdict, the prosecution failed to prove its case while the complainant and an eyewitness also refused to identify the accused in court.

Arshad Pappu, Farhan and Shakeel were facing charges of demanding Rs200,000 as extortion from the complainant. The co-accused, Ghaffar Zikri, Ghaffar Dholi, and Asif alias Asifa, have already been declared absconders in the case.

Earlier, the court had declared the complainant, Fareed Khan, and the eyewitness, Javed Aslam, hostile on the request of the prosecution since they had refused to identify the accused in the trial court.

The court had examined six prosecution witnesses, including Sub-Inspectors Wazir Mohammad and Mohammad Naeem, and Investigation Officer Sultan Ahmed.

SI Wazir Mohammad had testified that Fareed Khan and his friend, Javed Aslam, came to the Kalri police station and asked him to lodge a case against the accused as they were demanding extortion money from Fareed Khan. SI Naeem had deposed that he, along with a police party, had arrested one of the accused, Shakeel, after a shootout.

A case (FIR No 79/2005) was registered against Arshad Pappu, Farhan, Shakeel, Ghaffar Zikri, Ghaffar Dholi and Asif alias Asifa under Section 387/34 (putting a person in fear of death or of grievous hurt in order to commit extortion) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7(H) (punishment for acts of terrorism) of the Anti-Terrorism Act on March 23, 2005, at the Kalri police station.

The prosecution said Shakeel was arrested on the night of March 24, 2005, while Arshad Pappu and Farhan were in jail.

Meanwhile, the anti-terrorism court-II acquitted an alleged member of a banned militant outfit due to a lack of evidence in a case related to distribution of what were described as insulting posters.

The judge, Abdul Ghafoor Memon, announced the verdict, which said that the prosecution did not produce enough evidence to prove the involvement of the accused.

Mohammad Waqas Muslim, a student of NED University of Engineering and Technology, allegedly associated with Hizbul Tehrir, a banned militant outfit, was booked on Nov 28, 2007 for distributing posters, containing negative remarks against the president of Pakistan. A case was registered against him at the Mobina Town police station.