May 08, 2008	Thursday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 2, 1429

KARACHI, May 7: The civil judge and judicial magistrate-III, central, Khushi Mohammad, on Wednesday remanded a member of a bank’s loan recovery team in jail custody till May 16 for his alleged role in the suicide of a bank defaulter.

According to the prosecution, Mohammad Tufail Shah, 26, who had defaulted on a loan, committed suicide on April 27 by hanging himself from a ceiling fan in his house in New Karachi. Earlier that day, a loan recovery team had visited Tufail’s house and had reportedly misbehaved with his mother and sister, which caused the debtor immense stress and depression.

A case (FIR No 87/2008) under Sections 322, 316, 504 and 506 of the Pakistan Penal Code was registered at the New Karachi police station on the complaint of the deceased’s mother.

On May 2, police arrested the suspect, Sheikh Mohammad Atif, the leader of the loan recovery team. Next day the court remanded him to police custody till May 7.

Couple’s murder case

The additional district and sessions judge, central, Tasneem Sultana, put off the hearing of a case pertaining to the murder of a newly-wed couple till May 14 since both the sides requested the judge for adjournment.

Hafiz Shaikh Mohammad Azeem and his bride Beenish were found dead under the mysterious circumstance the next morning of their wedding night in their North Nazimabad apartment on Aug 11, 2007. The case (FIR No391/07) was registered on the complaint of Danish Zaheer, a brother of the deceased bride, at Taimuria police station under Section of 302/34 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The investigation officer had nominated deceased groom’s father, Shaikh Abdul Majeed, as the main accused in the case.

On January 11, the court had indicted Shaikh Abdul Majeed on the charges of killing the couple. The accused pleaded not guilty and opted to contest the case.

Court sources said that both the parties had reached on an out-of-the-court settlement. The families were likely to a compromise application before the court on next hearing.

Kidnap and murder case

An anti-terrorism court on Wednesday adjourned the hearing of a case pertaining to kidnap, rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl till May 9 after the defence counsel partly recorded his final arguments in the case.

Tanveer Ahmed is being tried for kidnapping eight-year-old Iqra from outside her house where she was playing on February 25, 2007, in Pakistan Bazaar police limits. According to the prosecution, the accused, brother-in-law of the girl’s father, took her to his home and demanded Rs500,000 as ransom from her father, Saleem. The kidnapper then allegedly raped the girl before killing her. He later chopped her body into pieces.

A case (FIR 74/2007) was lodged on the complaint of the victim’s father in the Pakistan Bazaar police station under Sections 365-A, 302 and 376 of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7(A), (E), (I) of the Anti-terrorism Act.

Police traced the accused through the calls he had made on the complainant’s cellular phone and arrested him on March 7, 2007. During the initial interrogation, the accused said he had buried different parts of the victim’s body in the Saddar and Mochko areas. Police raided the locations and disinterred the parts.

When the case came up for hearing on Wednesday, defence counsel Rana Qayyum said his client was innocent and implicated in the case as there were glaring contradictions in the statements of prosecution witnesses regarding the age and kidnapping of the deceased girl. Rejecting the medical reports, the advocate said the medico-legal officer had wrongly mentioned in the post-mortem examination report that the girl was sexually abused before being killed.

Judge Ghulam Ali Samtio of the ATC-1, who is conducting the trial, partly heard the final arguments and adjourned the hearing till Friday when the defence counsel would record his remaining arguments.

Special public prosecutor Niamat Ali Randhawa, earlier, argued that the prosecution successfully proved their case against the accused by producing sufficient evidence before the court. He submitted that the accused led the police to the areas where he buried the body parts of the deceased girl and the same was disinterred by the police on his information. He said the accused had also voluntarily recorded his confessional statement before the court of judicial magistrate and trail court. He concluded that the accused had kidnapped the girl and brutally killed after raping her. The prosecutor pleaded the court to award death sentence to the accused on two counts.

In all, 13 prosecution and private witnesses, including Judicial Magistrate Irshad Hussain Qureshi, who had recorded the confessional statement of the accused, medico-legal officer at the JPMC Dr Fareedi, ASI Munir Ahmed and investigation officer Asharf Sherwani, have been examined in the case. Dr Fareedi, who conducted the autopsy, informed the court that medical reports had confirmed that the girl was sexually abused before being killed as marks of violence were found on her body.