July 11, 2008	Friday	Rajab 7, 1429

KARACHI, July 10: The civil judge and judicial magistrate, West, Mohammad Ibrahim Sheikh, on Thursday acquitted an alleged gangster of Lyari, Arshad Pappu, in a robbery case due to lack of evidence.

The prosecution said Mr Pappu and his associates Hamid, Mohammad Sharif, Sarwar, Mohammad Aslam and Mohammad Zafar were charged with looting a hardware shop of Mohammad Hussain in Dec 2003 in the limits of the Pak Colony police station. The court in its order said the prosecution had failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove Pappu’s involvement in the robbery.

A case (FIR 216/03) was registered under Sections 380 and 457/34 of the Pakistan Penal Code at the Pak Colony police station.

Sent to jail

The special judge of the anti-corruption court, Syed Gul Munir Shah, on Thursday sent the administrator of the New Sabzi Mandi’s market committee into jail custody on a judicial remand in a corruption case.

The administrator of the market committee, G. M. Chakrani, was arrested on Wednesday after the dismissal of his bail application by the same court.

Mr Chakrani with secretary of the market committee Saeed-ul-Hasan Zaidi, director-general of the Sindh government’s agriculture extension Naeem Ahmed Korejo, and Ashiq Hussein, a section officer, PMP, agriculture department, government of Sindh, were facing charges in the land scam involving millions of rupees.

According to the prosecution, the case was registered on the basis of an inquiry into a complaint (No 249/07) of the anti-corruption establishment. The men are accused of having converted 164 amenity plots into shops. Under the Karachi master plan, these plots had been reserved for a fire station, a services station, a weighbridge and public lavatories.

The court fixed Aug 8 as the next date of hearing of the case.